"Pandora" is a disaster movie from South Korea that happened to stay low enough on the radar to avoid my interest up until now in mid-2017. So when I found this 2016 movie in the Asian section, I was naturally interested and after having read the synopsis, I decided to give the movie a go and went to sit down to watch it.
It is the thrilling storyline that really keeps the audience at the edge of their seats, because writer and director Park Jung-woo really managed to construct a very realistic and compelling story that deals with an interesting topic. And the storyline is really helped along quite nicely by an interesting character gallery.
I will say that the storyline worked out on multiple levels, because you are equally interested in what happens to the power plant and on a national scale, but at the same time you have an equal interest in the characters throughout the movie. So this was a great accomplishment for writer and director Park Jung-woo.
While mentioning the characters, then it should be said that the people they had cast for the various roles and characters were quite nicely cast, and they were performing quite well with these roles and characters. Now it was generally an entire cast of new faces for me, so I was more than happy to see new talents on the screen, especially when they performed as nicely as they did here.
The special effects and CGI in "Pandora" were quite good and quite convincing. I was especially impressed with the explosion when the power plant exploded, that just looked very cool.
A disaster movie like this is naturally enhanced by a great music score, and the music they composed for "Pandora" was quite good. It had excitement, yet it was still subtle enough to serve as background music. It most definitely added a good layer of suspense and thrill to the movie.
There is a great sense of urgency and panic throughout the movie, and that really helped to cement the realism that permeated the movie. And I was especially impressed with how the various characters went about dealing with the situation, ranging from ordinary residents to high ranking government officials.
"Pandora" is a rather compelling story, and I must admit that I was genuinely surprised with how exciting and interesting director and writer Jong-woo Park had managed to make this movie. Especially since there is a very realistic feel and atmosphere to the movie. If you enjoy disaster movies and if you are a fan of Asian cinema, then you definitely owe it to yourself to sit down and watch this movie.
