Directed by:
Christian AlvartScreenplay:
Travis MilloyCinematography:
Wedigo von SchultzendorffComposer:
Michl BritschCast:
Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue, Cung Le, Norman Reedus, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Friederike Kempter, Niels Bruno Schmidt, Delphine Chuillot (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. It's pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the ship. They can't remember anything: Who are they? What is their mission? With Lt. Payton (Quaid) staying behind to guide him via radio transmitter, Cpl. Bower (Foster) ventures deep into the ship and begins to uncover a terrifying reality. Slowly the spacecraft's shocking, deadly secrets are revealed∧ the astronauts find their own survival is more important than they could ever have imagined. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (8)
Anderson, Marshall, Cameron... the director has borrowed quite a lot. With the production supervision of Anderson, he has made an impressive horror/slaughter film that puts the cards on the table without much fuss and then rides the frantic rhythm of a space slasher, which shows that the director enjoys this genre and serves up all the B-movie clichés side by side. It doesn't matter that he answers the viewer's "What the hell is behind this?" question in the most banal way. The cast on this darkened spaceship does what was expected of them, and Ben Foster in particular deserves a few extra claps. It's not a radical film in the history of horror, but as a representative of thematically similar colleagues from previous years, it will be missing in this year's movie theater offerings.
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A good film with a great start, which unfortunately doesn't manage to maintain its atmosphere. But it doesn't matter too much - instead of a sci-fi/psycho/horror movie, after half an hour Pandorum becomes a slasher flick in space with solid scares and a decently scary atmosphere. Everybody is still wondering what happened on the ship, and although I suspected one of the final twists, the point really surprised me and the finale was impressive. Go ahead and put on Pandorum like I do at 10 o'clock at night, put on your headphones, turn off the lights and I guarantee you'll have a hell of a time falling asleep in bed.
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Pandorum is a sophisticated sci-fi survival drama that skillfully combines the atmosphere of a Gigerstyle spaceship, psychedelic shades of Event Horizon, and a well-paced space-monster horror movie
with a realistic (and thus more frightening) foundation. It also features well-written and played
characters whose entries to the scene are unexpected and move the story forward. Better than most
of the bigger-budget, star-studded blockbusters (Sphere, Life).
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I must ultimately acknowledge that from the perspective of sci-fi horror, this is a relatively successful film. It demonstrates that there is still potential in this fusion of genres, and it depends only on the creators how they perceive it and how they will approach the chosen theme. In some moments, it could have been intensified further, but I do believe that the horror aspect of the film is executed well.
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On one hand, the film is firmly rooted in B-movie territory, not so much in terms of budget, but more in overall execution and cliché motifs, whether in the script or the directorial approach. On the other hand, it features decent performances, at least from the central duo of actors, has a respectable visual design that creates a properly claustrophobic atmosphere of mystery and horror in some scenes, and most importantly, it has a premise with immense potential that could lead to outstanding results under certain circumstances. These circumstances would require refining the script and particularly the film's dialogues, which at times made me bite my lip to hold back laughter, introducing the monsters much later and changing their appearance so as not to resemble something out of a generic horror film like Hellraiser, and most importantly, putting effort into developing the characters and eliminating a lot of cliched nonsense. I do not deny that Pandorum has its entertaining moments, its ability to be frightening in some moments and create tension in others, but with this execution, it's something I would enjoy at the age of 14 and nowadays I have to either switch off my brain or take a detached view of what's happening on the screen. Overall impression: 50%.
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