Pandorum

Pandorum is a German/ American collaborative effort, written by Travis Milloy and directed by Christian Alvart. Science fiction magazine SFX called it "The finest interstellar horror in years", but other critics however, have been much more realistic in their judgements.

Pandorum is a good and intriguing story poorly told. The idea that astronauts engaged in a desperate mission to pilot a section of humanity to an awaiting new world receive a message from Earth of its destruction, thereby leaving the crew and passengers of the ship the last remaining vestiges of humanity, is a premise that in itself opens up a multitude of possibilities. The makers of Pandorum opted for a psychological thriller slash interstellar horror, but failed to deliver on either of those intentions.

First of all, it's not scary. The mutated humans that are cast as monsters scuttling round the ship are, well... "meh". With the entire universe of costumes and CGI to choose from, the movie ended up with creatures marginally more frightening than a gigantic purple dinosaur. It's an attempt at something that has benn done before (monsters in a vast empty spaceship)- and much more successfully, in "Alien", which was a genuinely magnificent interstellar horror.

Second of all, the psychological thriller aspect isn't convincing. It never contains the "oomph" audiences seek, and the tension is manufactured and laboured- when it exists at all. Pandorum fails to make the viewer care, and any revelation or twist in the plotline is met only with a chorus of "meh", which as one word is as good as any to sum up the entire production.

Having failed to impress in either of its most obvious genre specific aims, we're left with a plodding, lumbering spectacle we've long since given up on by the end. By the final twist, the audience is shocked only because what had once seemed to be neverending is now coming to a close.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with Pandorum, especially with wordcount limitations, but the narrative is unsatisfying, clumsy, and borders on boring. The plot has so much potential, potential that is slowly choked out of it by the subpar switching between a couple of strands, neither of which the audience cares greatly about given the way that they've been told.

The direction is by no means the absolute worst thing about Pandorum. There is definitely a sense of "seen that before" about much of the movie but Alvart does reasonably okay. Some individual shots are breathtaking, and it says much for the young German's ability that in such a genre where larger budgets are often the norm, Pandorum's best moments are isolated instances of cinematographic excellence achieved without breaking the bank, light and camera used to excellent effect when combined with the movie's sets.

Hopefully his next project will be one that follows through on these flashes of ability, a movie we can truly get excited about.