Pandorum Movie Review 57

Pandorum is a sci-fi/horror movie and it stars the great Dennis Quaid who has been in lots of movies I like and Ben Foster who was in Six Feet Under and 3:10 to Yuma.It starts off with Bower(Foster) waking up from hyper sleep aboard the ship Elysium and I don't think anything is said for the first five minutes!! As we all know from movies, it takes a while to get going after a hyper sleep so after he gets his space legs back, dresses and shaved, out pops Payton(Quaid) from his hyper sleep pod! Neither one knows what has happened to the ship as they have no memory of who they are or what has happened. They cannot access the bridge or get in touch with the other crew members so Bower sits off to find out more with the help of Payton on the radio.


The ship seems to be drifting without any guidance and they need to get things back in line. This means everything is very dark as Bower goes around the ship. He meets the lovely Antje Traue and the very cool looking Cung Le and they begin a fellowship of the ring to.....I mean, they group together as they go to the ships reactor!!Unfortunately,running around the ship are weird mutants/aliens who like to dine on humans! It seemed interesting until they show up but from then on, it's an Aliens/Resident Evil/Alone in the Dark type of movie. That is not to say that it's terrible but I thought that this was going to be a different type of movie. The movie title Pandorum refers to a type of psychosis brought about by being in deep space for a long time and intense trauma can cause it. Of course if you have pandorum you hallucinate, become paranoid and killing everyone becomes your hobby!!


The movie tells us at the beginning that because of overpopulation, their ship has been sent to colonise a new Earth-type planet and they realise this as the ship is on a one-way trip. Payton comes across another crew member who tells him that Earth has been destroyed and they are the only surviving members of the human race. Bower tries to make it to the ships reactor to restart it with the help of the others but maybe all is not what it seems... The ending is quite obvious or at least it was to me and you will have seen it in loads of movies before. The mutants/aliens on the ship seemed to be thrown in and yes- their presence is explained but I won't say what they are exactly as it may spoil the ending of the movie for you.


Pandorum reminded me of the great movie Event Horizon but Pandorum is not as good. Dennis Quaid has all his scenes in one room and it felt as if he had done it for the money. He may get top billing but it's really Ben Foster's movie and he doesn't do badly at all. It seems set up for a sequel or a franchise and it isn't bad, but it isn't great either. If you like sci-fi/horror like Event Horizon then check it out! You will have seen worse and better movies but it is worth a look!

6/10