2009, Movies

Pandorum (2009, Chrstian Alvart)

Pandorum has a neat concept to start, but unfortunately it is undercut by overly explanatory title cards – better the movie open with Bower coming out of his chamber, I think.

But, that being said, otherwise the movie seems quite strong at first. The reveal is way too early, but otherwise it’s good. There are some silly science fiction cliche set pieces – for example a reactor that is impossible to get to – but otherwise the movie is a fairly good science fiction horror movie, with enough interest and jumps until

SPOILERS!!!

Two unnecessary and dumb twists ruin the movie.

The first one might not have been so dumb – though it’s certainly expected – but it is handled so poorly that it’s hard to take it seriously. I understand why they tried to do what they tried to do: they wanted to show how Gallow was experiencing “Pandorum” – what a dumb name for going stir crazy, by the way – but it just isn’t handled well.

The second twist might have been fantastic had it been not coupled with the first. (These kinds of movies need one twist, maximum.) This second twist is far more original than the first – which is pretty typical of these types of movies – and it also might have been executed well, had I not been so annoyed by the first twist that I was like “You have to be kidding me.” In fact, on reflection, I don’t really hate the second twist, I just hate that the second twist is coupled with the first.

4/10

  • Directed by Christian Alvart
  • Produced by Robert Kulzer, Jeremy Bolt, Paul W. S. Anderson
  • Screenplay by Travis Milloy
  • Story by Travis Milloy, Christian Alvart
  • Starring
    • Dennis Quaid as Lieutenant Payton/Older Corporal Gallo
    • Ben Foster as Corporal Bower
    • Cam Gigandet as Younger Corporal Gallo
    • Antje Traue as Nadia
    • Cung Le as Manh
    • Eddie Rouse as Leland
    • André Hennicke as Hunter Leader
    • Norman Reedus as Shepard
    • Wotan Wilke Möhring as Young Bower’s Father
    • Niels-Bruno Schmidt as Insane Officer Eden
  • Music by Michl Britsch
  • Cinematography by Wedigo von Schultzendorff
  • Edited by Philipp Stahl, Yvonne Valdez
  • Production companies: Constantin Film, Impact Pictures
  • Distributed by Overture Films, Constantin Film, Icon Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, M6
  • Release date: 25 September 2009
  • Running time: 108 minutes
  • Country: Germany, United Kingdom
  • Language: English
  • Budget: $33 million
  • Box office: $20,645,327

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.