Pandorum (2009): Movie Review

Image courtesy: MGM

With earth at the brink of losing its resources with an oversized population, the spacecraft Elysium is launched into space bringing Astronauts and a huge number of people to populate a planet similar to earth some lightyears away. It will take years before they'd reach their destination and so the astronauts take in shift to fly the ship while the rest are doused in sleep, locked up in capsules for decades of years until the ship finally lands. But something went amiss. With the fluid necessary to put them to sleep and providing them nutrition messing with their memories, the crew fell to disarray. Worse, get engulfed with Pandorum.

amazon

Review:

This film has a nice plot and a storyline that really makes sense. Really, some shrink and synthetic fluids would take their toll in a human body with prolonged use. And who would have thought that derision could make a new race of barbaric humans? Think of Gollum just incapable of a proper verbal language but can lead an army. Or worse, could crawl up the ceiling like a spider with an agile body and speed.

I was so happy to see Norman Reedus in it but so disappointed with what little role he had. He was always bad ass with his roles but here, he looked utterly helpless. Moreover, at first, I thought that the main protagonist, Dennis Quaid looked kind of weak. He was rather short than tall and slender for a man despite the toned muscles. But as time goes by, I noticed how similar he looks with Draco Malfoy. :D And Cam Cigandet is present again! Every time I see his face in a film, I'm always plagued with guessing the role he's playing. Is he a bad guy or a good guy? I guess no one could tell with his devilish looks. And the bottomline with him? You'd always be surprised.

The female main cast, a german biologist among the crew is quite hot. And she is quite a warrior too. In a situation where one has to kill or be killed, she was shaped into a fighter in order to survive months of chasing and running away from mindless monsters. I like female heroines that really kick ass. And as usual, Asians are always the master of martial arts. They put in addition to the cast, a Vietnamese who only talks... well, Vietnamese. It was kind of funny how the protagonist understands him every time he talks. without subtitles. He was fast and fierce with his spear.

This film is more on the action and the story unfolds of course, at the end. While typically in a scifi film, you'd enjoy the flow of events with the plot, here you'd rather enjoy the running and the fight scenes. I could say no more about how great this film is. Sadly, you could not see it in lists of most Scifi films. It's not that known and the only reason I watched it was because Norman Reedus was in it.

28%48%6.8/108/10