Pandorum

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Went to see this last weekend. It pretty much lived up to my expectations. (Surpassed them a little, as scenes that looked rather awkward in the commercials were actually handled rather well in the movie.)

It takes place in a "distant-enough" future, where space flight is common, but we haven't managed to colonize anything in our solar system. (At least nothing is mentioned, mining is, but eh.) The Earth has grown increasingly overpopulated, and is in dire straights.

An Earth like planet is found, and the Elysium is constructed, crewed, and launched. To go into much more would spoil much of the movie.

It never really touches on truly original, but the execution of the film feels competent the entire time. Especially their use of light in many places.

I'd say it's worth at least a matinee.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

But what is it about?

Seriously, the commercials make it look like a possible sci-fi horror movie...maybe? Maybe there is an alien or just a psycho running loose on the ship, that is if they aren't trapped in a simulation or just crazy? Maybe there's some sort of substance turning them into paranoids or killers or maybe not?

I need to know more if I'm going to give a shit about some generic-looking sci fi film.

[Big Orange]

Derivative to the extreme but fun, pretty much like other "guilty pleasure" movies such as Event Horizon and Resident Evil (the director for those, Anderson, is the producer for this). The ship's interior design is very impressive and exactly how I imagine a Conjoiner/Ultra Lighthugger's interior to resemble from Alastair Reynold's space opera novels.
Spoiler

I kinda find it amusing how the ship was at its destination for perhaps the better part of the millennia and also how the genetic alterations to the passengers and crew backfired, turning many of them into horrible Morlock/Orc style creatures because they were trapped onboard for generations

[Andrew_Fireborn]

It's kind of horror, though it becomes more survival action in the middle. And it has a sprinkling of Psych-horror throughout.

Spoilers are spoilerific. >_> Spoiler

Indeed. In that final scene, my friend was trying to figure out where the hell they could be, then as the wheels spin they show you...

The morks were interesting. Once the timescale appears, the genetic-fuckery thing seems a lot less anti-science, and makes the whole thing come togather just a little bit better.

I don't remember if the distance was ever mentioned, but that's one hell of a ship if it was supposed to make it in 120 years and landed itself intact, and then survived the better cart of a millenium mostly submerged.

[SylasGaunt]

But what is it about?

Seriously, the commercials make it look like a possible sci-fi horror movie...maybe? Maybe there is an alien or just a psycho running loose on the ship, that is if they aren't trapped in a simulation or just crazy? Maybe there's some sort of substance turning them into paranoids or killers or maybe not?

I need to know more if I'm going to give a shit about some generic-looking sci fi film.

In a way it is fairly generic, in that nothing it does is really new. It's all stuff that's been done but but it's executed surprisingly well, and there's a decent mix of mindfuckery and 'Holy fuck mutant trying to eat my face!'.

The title of the movie references what is basically a form of Space Madness.

The brief plot summary is that on board a colony ship called the Elysium one of the crew comes out of hypersleep. The flight crews are on a 2 year rotation, only when he wakes the power's off and all but one of the other pods are empty. He wakes up his lieutenant and they proceed to try and figure out a way to get the power on so they can get to the bridge and keep the ship from falling apart since while they slept things have gone HORRIBLY wrong. Anyway the Lieutenant stays behind to use the computers (which have wonder of wonders an independent power supply) while the poor enlisted schmuck gets to crawl through the airducts and out into the ship which is falling apart and being fought over by horrible mutants and a few normal survivors and try and figure out how to get to the reactor so he can keep it from shutting down.

I'll echo Big Orange to in that the ship interior has some really cool looking spots.

[Darmalus]

I really enjoyed this movie. None of the characters struck me as Too Dumb To Live, and after a few plot reveals, the bizarreness of the situation they are in makes a lot more sense. Nothing new, but well done, I think I will buy this on DVD.

[Big Orange]

I give Pandorum a score of 6/10 for being the very definition of "OK" in terms of script, directing, set design, and acting (and the story has a moderately intelligent twist). Dennis Quaid (who like Treat Williams) comes across as a cutprice Harrison Ford, yet he's decent as the film's anchor man (at least inititially), Ben Foster was much more memorable as a really uncomfortable scumbag in 3:10 to Yuma but OK here, I was not pleased about Eddie Rouse, Antje Traue didn't go overboard in her generic ass kicking babe role, and André Hennicke turned in a amazing "man in monster suit" performance.

[Pulp Hero]

I just saw this at the matinee and was expecting a laughably bad rehash of 'Event Horizon'. I was pleasantly surprised all around by this film.

I think the part that made the inner nerd in my smile the most was at the end when Corporal Hero and Boobs Asskicker escape in the pod and reached the surface, the film appeared to be ending on a Hollywood happy note. I was kind of disappointed at the stupidity of only one man and woman left in the universe being a happy ending, then the movie cuts back to "HULL BREACH- LAUNCH PODS!" and all the other survivors pop out, leaving a sustainable population.

[Luzifer's right hand]

I enjoyed the film quite a bit, no masterwork but decent entertainment.

I agree that parts of the ship looked quite cool.
I found the flashback scene in which another ship lunches it's life pods in deep space quite breathtaking.

[Big Orange]

I was kind of disappointed at the stupidity of only one man and woman left in the universe being a happy ending, then the movie cuts back to "HULL BREACH- LAUNCH PODS!" and all the other survivors pop out, leaving a sustainable population.

Well you didn't want Bower and Nadia's offspring to have progressively bigger teeth and smaller chins with every successive generation.

[JGregory32]

Some fridge logic almost ruined the movie for me.
We learn that the journey was supposed to take 102 years, we also learn that there are at least five teams of flight crew on two year rotation. Meaning each flight crew has to pilot the ship for a total of 20 years. AT that point I questioned the logic of having rotating flight crews, why not just have each crew pull a twenty year duty and then go to sleep. Some further thinking resolved this, when the main character wakes up we learn that prolonged hypersleep does BAD things to long term memory so the rotation system makes a lot more sense.
BTW Am I the only one that had a weird moment when the bad guy asks the main character "How do you know that?". I suddenly found myself asking, "yeah how did the exposition guy actually know the story unless he had been awake for it?"