Pandorum
Thirty years after Ridley Scott’s Alien wowed critics, frightened the masses and sparked a new horror genre for sci-fi geeks, director Christian Alvart takes moviegoers back to a familiar allegory with a delightful twist that makes for a truly macabre vision of the future.
A scary and atmospheric genre piece, Pandorum flirts with the proposed effects of long term space travel - an idea we all better get used to unless we plan to stick around for the impending fireworks here on Earth.
Five hundred million miles from home, 60,000 passengers aboard a giant spaceship intended to seed a new world have gone missing. It’s up to Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) and Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) to solve the mystery and save humanity from overpopulation and war before flesh-hungry creatures and the psychological effects of space travel grab a hold of them first.
This latest installation to the classic alien heavy flick is no ordinary slasher-in-space, but instead delves into timely subjects like evolution, primal instinct and competition for dwindling resources, and all but crushes our rose-colored glasses for an ending that’s about as bright as Oceanic flight 815’s paradise crash landing.
As the latest collaborative effort by the producers behind the Resident Evil franchise, Pandorum delivers grade-A creature effects and relentless action amidst scenic backdrops, providing a satisfying reminder of how science fiction once looked without the onslaught of green screens.
Although the mythology surrounding the motion picture is robust enough to warrant a sequel and perhaps even a prequel (think NBC’s Earth 2, but more interesting), story-starved sci-fi fans shouldn’t believe the hype too soon; it might take lame-brained Hollywood executives some time to get over apocalyptic distractions like The Road, The Book of Eli and the latest take on angels-gone-wild, Legion, or look beyond the flashy budget allure of the mammoth blockbuster Avatar to see any real justification for expanding the new-world-colonization sci-fi narrative.
In short, Pandorum is a film for the classic sci-fi lover - ripe with interesting what ifs, compelling characters and special effects driven by the plot. And not vice versa.
DVD highlights include a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Elysium, audio commentary with Director Christian Alvart and Producer Jeremy Bolt, deleted and alternate scenes and still galleries.
