Pandorum is about two astronauts aboard an Ark ship who wake up from their cryogenic sleep tanks with memory loss. They don't know what the mission is, where they are, nor what has happened to the rest of the ship. As they explore their surroundings, they learn that the ship is teeming with mutants who are super-fast, super-strong, and super-loud. Chase scenes abound as the crew try to avoid being eaten while regaining control over the ship and come to terms with the mission.
The film starts off with obvious references to Pitch Black, Alien, and Aliens. Once the mutants appear, however, the film shifts into overdrive, and it becomes Resident Evil, Aliens, and Descent. The mutants all screech like the vampires in 30 Days of Night, but fortunately, the noise is blended in with the rest of the soundtrack, and so didn't give me a headache.
The film's real problem is one of its main selling points: the mutants. Without them, the crew wouldn't be running from set piece to set piece, and wouldn't be compelled to stop and question what they discover. But that also cheats some of the characters (like the non-English speaking Agricultural worker) out of some needed character development. It also cheats the film out of seriously dealing with the fine story that is bubbling just under the surface of the writhing mass of mutants. There is some fine SF here, you just have to ignore the action.
There are a couple twists along the way, which I will not mention here, but they are welcome additions of cleverness to an overall film that feels as if it's riffing on lots of other popular SF films. The ending was pitch perfect for SF, and I enjoyed the movie overall. I do have to wonder though: in a space ship the size of a city, wouldn't the designers have installed a couple windows?
The film starts off with obvious references to Pitch Black, Alien, and Aliens. Once the mutants appear, however, the film shifts into overdrive, and it becomes Resident Evil, Aliens, and Descent. The mutants all screech like the vampires in 30 Days of Night, but fortunately, the noise is blended in with the rest of the soundtrack, and so didn't give me a headache.
The film's real problem is one of its main selling points: the mutants. Without them, the crew wouldn't be running from set piece to set piece, and wouldn't be compelled to stop and question what they discover. But that also cheats some of the characters (like the non-English speaking Agricultural worker) out of some needed character development. It also cheats the film out of seriously dealing with the fine story that is bubbling just under the surface of the writhing mass of mutants. There is some fine SF here, you just have to ignore the action.
There are a couple twists along the way, which I will not mention here, but they are welcome additions of cleverness to an overall film that feels as if it's riffing on lots of other popular SF films. The ending was pitch perfect for SF, and I enjoyed the movie overall. I do have to wonder though: in a space ship the size of a city, wouldn't the designers have installed a couple windows?