Pandorum

Dir: Christian Alvart (Case 39, Antibodies)
Cast: Ben Foster, Denis Quaid, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue, Chun Le, Eddie Rouse
USA/Germany, 2009

Seen: September 25, 2009 at AMC

Reason to see: Sci Fi got me in the door, plus looking forward to see Ben Foster in a more leading role

First off, this is not really a science fiction film but rather a horror film in a science fiction setting. Not really knowing that is what I get for liking to go see films with so little context. As a horror film, has some decent tension, it can make you jump but mostly with jump scares. As for the Sci Fi element it's lacking in a lot of ways. Primarily the story, where there are a few interesting ideas they are often under explored and throw us back to a random action scene. So many things are left unexplained and the amount of inconsistencies, incongruities or the worst was something conveniences 'fixing' a scenario to keep moving forward had me stifling laughter.

It was quite a disappointment, especially given the cast but it doesn't seem like they had much to work with. The performance by Cam Gigandet was quite strong, and I will keep looking forward to more work from Ben Foster but this film wasn't a great showcase for anyone. I will give it the nod that I didn't always know what was going on, but I'm not sure how much of a compliment that is.

Shannon's Overall View:
It has a lot of problems
I would watch it again though, I'm such a sucker for Sci Fi
I'd recommend it if you like SciFi/Horror and don't mind incongruities

16 minutes of preshow including 4 commercials and 5 previews: Alice in Wonderland (2010), The Fourth Kind, Law Abiding Citizen, The Road and Up in the Air

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© Shannon Ridler, 2009