Short Review: 'Pandorum' (2009)

Space. The final frontier. The last playing field in which mankind has yet to conquer. From the viewpoint of Earth, space undoubtedly seems like a marvellous place, beautiful in its infinite mysteries. However, whenever cinema spreads its mighty fingers into our atmosphere to explore the boundless depths beyond the result is almost always one of grim realisation: that the outer realms of the abyss are not a world wonder but terrain of TERROR! From classy masterpieces such as Alien to fun B-grade romps like Event Horizon, the sci-fi horror yarn is a subgenre rarely ventured - and with good reason - as more often than not the results are mediocre to say the least. Despite a good amount of fan boy hype stewing before its release, last year’s galactic gorefest Pandorum saw the cosmic capers of deep space cinema take a further downward descent, a shame considering the substantial talent on board.

In the far away future, flight navigators Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Bower (Ben Foster) wake up aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft with no memory of where they are or why. As they search for signs of life amid the deeper bowels of the craft the two men encounter a pair of survivors who claim the ship is inhabited by a vicious enemy, warning them of the impending danger to their lives should they not act swiftly. As things go from bad to worse the astronauts soon learn of a greater secret kept hidden within the vessel’s walls, one that may implement the fate of not just themselves but of the entirety of mankind…

Almost from the get go Pandorum is an incredibly frustrating movie. The setup seems basic enough: a desolate spacecraft, memory-impaired crew, a looming threat lurking in the shadows, etc and would suggest the makings of a relatively entertaining if not completely conventional time waster. However, the minute Bower and Payton consolidate their interests and begin exploring the ships’ many lone corridors, the minute any and all coherency of plotting, character motivation and story direction is sucked out through the escape hatch like so many of the films’ unfortunate victims. Despite an interesting idea at its heart and some promising opportunities for audience misdirection, Travis Milloy’s scattershot screenplay coupled with the schizophrenic visual approach employed by director Alvart result in a narrative structure so jumbled and rambling in its feverish immaturity to excite that it instead numbs the senses into boredom after the first 30 minutes…and then some. Whenever the film attempts to implement any exposition (almost all of which is relayed through the grating vocal cords of a barely audible secondary character) regarding the eventual grandiose outcome behind the already convoluted story one can’t help but squint the eyes and shake the head in complete mystification and uncertainty. Consistency and reason are not the order of the day within the world of Pandorum to say the least.

Further muffled are the talents of the films’ two leading men: Mr Dennis Quaid and the hugely underappreciated Ben Foster. While the later does the best he can with the hopeless disorder of the material it is Quaid’s character that feels the most neglected and disused, serving the story as merely a functional vehicle to corroborate the actions of his fellow crewman until inevitably being swept up into the mayhem at the very end. Similarly, the auxiliaries (including Antje Traue and Chung Le) make little to no impression at all and only assist in highlighting the uninspired monotone of two-dimensional character work on display. And if you’re hoping for an impressively gnarly monster to distract you from the tedious human duplicates infiltrating this space-bound liner you’ll be sorely disappointed; the cretins aboard looking more like rejected creature designs from Lord of the Rings than anything seen in a H.R Giger workshop.

With the occasional moody production design and slick camerawork notwithstanding, Pandorum was perhaps a film better suited to the skills of a seasoned genre filmmaker adept to the craft of sturdy storytelling and genuine suspense technique. Overall the impression of confusion that plagues Avlart’s shlocker is simply too distracting to ignore, making this intergalactic exploration a failed mission for both moviegoer and moneymaker.



Dir: Christian Alvart
Writer: Travis Milloy
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Antje Traue, Chung Le
Country: Germany/UK
Run Time: 108mins
Rating: MA15+