Pandorum - what is wrong with it? SPOILERS

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I realize not many people have probably seen Pandorum yet, and I also thought about posting this in the reviews forum, but since I'm only focusing on what does not work in this movie maybe it is not the right place.

Anyway, just saw it, and I was left with a mildly satisfactory experience, yet all the time it felt like there was something missing(or maybe something too much). Heres what I came up with:

1. I'm always disappointed when the monster(s) in a horror movie is revealed too soon, and that definitely happens here. Also, they reminded me a lot about the things in The Descent, so they were kind of familiar already, and that does not breed fear.

2. The human cannibal looks like a cannibal the minute you see him since his attire is similar to what the creatures wear. He could have been a more complex character, I feel a better actor could have really done good here.

3. Too much running around in corridors and doors that sometimes open, sometimes don't, ruins the illusion for me, there should be some logic to it.

IMDB says they may make a sequel to this and I kind of look forward to that movie, the movie ends in an interesting point, it might be like Outlander but better since that movie becomes a stupid monster hunt after a promising start.

Anyway, any thoughts anyone?



Okay here's the thing I really enjoyed this film and was surprised to see very little on this site about it. I liked the idea of how it mixed human evolution to the ship and how I felt as disorianted as the characters felt. It stumbled rather poorly in the end but up until the point of "where did the stars go" it had my full attention. needless to say the ending was garbage.



\m/ Fade To Black \m/
I have to say that I really enjoyed Pandorum and I have thought the whole idea of the stars missing was great and I never thought that the surprise ending of the film would be what it was. Obviously I dont want to spoil the endding but it was very cool IMO.

Regards the alien cretures I know they shown up quite early in the film but you didnt really see them all. You just saw bits of them zooming past the camera etc. I do like your comparason to the creatues from The Desent which are also in Creep. When it comes to the dodgey canible guy I didnt think he was a cannible untill they were settled in the, I dont know what to call it, the bowl at the bottom of the room that they locked themselves into.

I have to say that I love seening "some space alien eating you" type of movies and this was IMO a great movie.
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Spoliers

1. I'm always disappointed when the monster(s) in a horror movie is revealed too soon, and that definitely happens here. Also, they reminded me a lot about the things in The Descent, so they were kind of familiar already, and that does not breed fear.
I haven't seen The Descent so I can't comment on that aspect. I really thought the point is to show them as soon as possible and to reveal them as a sort of evolutional nightmare of humans becoming something interwined with the ship something monsterous within the surrounding i.e. the ship. the story at least in my eyes unfolds this way giving you little bits of information, as you try to make out the full picture.

2. The human cannibal looks like a cannibal the minute you see him since his attire is similar to what the creatures wear. He could have been a more complex character, I feel a better actor could have really done good here.
I don't disagee, yet they all looked a bit messed up, other then Ben Fosters and Dennis Quiad characters because of there space suits/attire. I also think that was the point. The directors weren't trying to hide this point that he had become what the others in the ship had become but in a completely different way. Evolultion, The creatures treated us/normal humans as prey/live stock. He on the other hand becomes a cannibal and knows what he is doing is wrong.

3. Too much running around in corridors and doors that sometimes open, sometimes don't, ruins the illusion for me, there should be some logic to it.
I gathered this had more to do this the age of the ship, being so old things started to not work as well. Also the reactor is fluxing/starting to shut down so the power is limited to life support and vital aspects of the ship abiltiy to simply stay on, not shut down.

IMDB says they may make a sequel to this and I kind of look forward to that movie, the movie ends in an interesting point, it might be like Outlander but better since that movie becomes a stupid monster hunt after a promising start.
Seeing as the film did poorly at the box office it's probably safe to say there won't end up being an sequels to this film.



I was looking around at the different threads on Pandorum and this one made me laugh (I've responded to some of it below):

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...145#post620145

To make matters worse, the creatures themselves don't look very frightening. A major oversight considering we see them repeatedly throughout the movie. Imagine Cate Blanchett and Papa Smurf birthed a small army of deformed love-children. That's basically what's hunting down the crew.
This is so uncalled-for. Cate can be intimidating though – it's all in the cheekbones.

Originality aside, the real question is does it offer up some good scares? The answer is no. For starters, Director Christian Alvert clearly lacks the skills and patience to create genuine suspense. He follows the same formula as ninety-nine percent of today's horror directors. Within ten minutes, the camera starts shaking violently and unnecessary rapid-cutting begins. Either the camera man was having seizures or the director snorted a mountain of cocaine before each shoot. Regardless, Alvert clearly fails to understand it's what the audience doesn't see that's truly scary. That nail-biting anticipation of something bad just around the corner.
This was something I really struggled with throughout. It's incredibly confusing in places and sometimes it would have helped to slow things down to better communicate what was going on. I think Doom does this a lot more successfully.

1. I'm always disappointed when the monster(s) in a horror movie is revealed too soon, and that definitely happens here. Also, they reminded me a lot about the things in The Descent, so they were kind of familiar already, and that does not breed fear.
It's funny I didn't think of The Descent as they are comparable. Alien came to mind because of the spines or tubes that were sticking out of their backs in the half-light. After reading these different posts I'm definitely thinking more about The Time Machine as well. It's a shame because there are good ideas in Pandorum and this thing of the Hunters adapting to the ship instead of the intended Tanis really caught my imagination.

2. The human cannibal looks like a cannibal the minute you see him since his attire is similar to what the creatures wear. He could have been a more complex character, I feel a better actor could have really done good here.
Yeah I didn't rate his performance unfortunately.

IMDB says they may make a sequel to this and I kind of look forward to that movie, the movie ends in an interesting point, it might be like Outlander but better since that movie becomes a stupid monster hunt after a promising start.
I quite like Outlander, but then I like Beowulf so I appreciated the influence. I think had a Pandorum sequel been made you're right it might well have been similar, with the Hunters as the troll stand-ins.

have thought the whole idea of the stars missing was great and I never thought that the surprise ending of the film would be what it was. Obviously I dont want to spoil the endding but it was very cool IMO.
I liked that as well, and didn't see it coming.

I saw Pandorum as a bit of a mixture of Alien and Event Horizon, and I had newfound appreciation for Event Horizon after seeing this. Incidentally there's a really good colony-bound spaceship film called Cargo (2009) which I'm sure would be a lot more satisfying for people.

I found Ben Foster a decent enough actor but quite unengaging in the lead. I wasn't mad keen on him in X-Men either to be honest. Antje Traue was really good, with that quiet intensity, and particularly because of her physicality, which was vitally important to show given the character's survival against the odds (and I was certainly happy to have her to look at as the film went along). And Dennis Quaid was great – he's very reliable isn't he? And the twist for his character was a good extra aspect for him to work into his performance.

We're there again too aren't we with the ominous-sounding ship names. Yeah, you'd really want to call a ship Elysium years after a horrendous space disaster . How about a bit of optimism?