"Don't worry. I wouldn't have survived this long if I had a heart."
One of my favorite movies of all time is John Carpenter's 1982 classic, The Thing. It set the gold standard for all sci-fi horror that followed it (yes, I think it's better than Alien) and disappointingly few movies come anywhere close to that bar. Pitch Black came close back in 2000. And while Pandorum isn't better than either of those films, it manages to be an inventive, frightening and compelling sci-fi film with a great cast and some pretty interesting ideas.
The plot of the film hinges on several twists and an initial stance of audience ignorance, so I won't spoil anything that isn't made explicit within the first 20 minutes or so. By 2174, Earth has become a environmentally unsound shithole where its 24 billion inhabitants fight wars not for oil or land, but drinkable water. Out of this gloomy scenario comes the Elysium, a city-sized spaceship which embarks on a 123 year journey to Tanis, a recently discovered planet capable of supporting human life. Crewed by a small percentage of its 60,000 passengers (who rotate in two years shifts, spending the rest of the time in hypersleep), the Elysium represents the final hope for humanity's continued survival.
The film begins when Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) awakens from hypersleep on the Elysium. A member of the 5th two year shift, Bower finds no one from the 4th shift to bring him up to speed (which is very necessary given that hypersleep causes temporary selective amnesia). He awakens his commanding officer Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid) and they discover that the previous crews are nowhere to be found and that something decidedly non-human has infested the ship.
I mentioned to my roommate after the first twenty minutes of this film that it was probably the best videogame movie I've ever seen. Pandorum is not actually based on a videogame (although its atmosphere and setting is very similar to Dead Space), but the beginning plays very much like one. Bower is sent to explore the ship with just a flashlight and no weapons, while Payton remains behind in a control room, guiding him via an intercom. You could trace the videogame analogy through the entire film, but I feel like that would give the wrong impression.
I think what ultimately impressed me most about the film was the plot, which was high concept enough to support two different movies (this makes sense, since apparently the film was adapted from two similar, pre-existing scripts). The larger premise of the ship acting as a second Noah's Ark to a new planet is obviously interesting, but the film also creates a second thread with the introduction of Pandorum, a little-understood form of madness that has been known to strike people who spend too much time in space. The characters fear of this seeps into the viewer and influences the film in some surprising ways. In fact, by the time thet third act gets underway, the plot takes a surprising number of satisfying, unexpected twists. Just as I'd figured out one, I was blindsided with another.
The film's atmosphere isn't particularly original (somewhere between Dead Space and an Jeunet movie), but Alvart takes his time at the beginning, orienting the audience within the ship and giving an clear impression of its immense size. Lots of little touches (a shaving razor that utilizes a laser, bar code tattoes used as access keys, a pretty nifty stun gun gauntlet) are used to create the believable futuristic world and the film doesn't rely to heavily on jump scares for horror.
I was also pretty impressed with the cast; always a key component in a good sci-fi/horror film. Ben Foster (as you may remember from my review of The Messenger) is rapidly becoming one of my favorite character actors. You can drop him in pretty much any role, leading or supporting, and count on him to turn in a solid performance. Here, he brings Bower's fear and confusion to the forefront, managing to be both a clueless everyman and quite a bit of a badass. I don't really know what happened to Dennis Quaid in the past few years. It seems like he's slumming it in everything from shitty big budget genre flicks (The Day After Tomorrow) to shitty low budget genre flicks (Legion). At least he can mark this one in the win column. He turns in a solid, nuanced performance here. Special mention also goes to Norman Reedus (one of the Boondock Saints) in a cameo and the extremely sexy Antje Traue, a German actress in her first English-speaking role.
I went into this film hoping for the best but expecting little, and I'm pleased to say that it delivered in almost every way I wanted it to. Definitely reccommended if you've got Instant Watch.
Up Next: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (so fucking good) and this past January's vampire offering Daybreakers (not so good).
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