Pandorum

Part psychological thriller, part sci-fi, part ALIENS, PANDORUM is a unique hybrid. Although nothing new in terms of things we haven't seen before (encapsulate a group of men/women and see how they react), the film is strung together differently enough to hold your attention. You never really know what's around the next corner.

The story is pretty common: Earth is doomed. Spaceships are sent out to find a habitable planet. One of these ships has been lost in space for some time, and when ship's pilot #4, Bower (Ben Foster, 3:10 TO YUMA), wakes up from a prolonged hyper-sleep, much of his memory is gone or scrambled. Slowly things begin coming into focus as he finds various clues about who and where he's at. And not long after his awakening, another pod opens up and spills out Payton (Dennis Quaid, VANTAGE POINT), a high ranking officer who's memory is just as screwed up.

Bower is chosen to explore the ship, and getting out of their pod chamber is the first challenge since they're locked in for unknown reasons. Like giving birth, Bower squeezes through the canals of the ship's innards and is expelled onto what appears to be a dead ship. But he quickly runs into friends and foes. Some of the crew, it appears, have mutated and are cannibalistic. Others have had to do terrible things in order to fight and survive. All Bower wants to do is reactivate the ship's power systems and get to the bridge.

And that's about as far as I want to go without producing any spoilers....

There are several "jump-in-your-seat" moments that'll surprise the hell out of most viewers. And the darkness of the cold ship makes for some excellent atmosphere. The sound score also added a spooky quality to the production.

Ben Foster has rarely let me down in his choice of roles, and Pandorum was no exception. His embattled and continually challenged character was pitched just right throughout the film. It was also one of the first times I'd seen him as a main character and I was pleased to see it. He's a great young actor.

And I've saved the best for last: the filming. It was pretty amazing. Again, the dark qualities and claustrophobic shots were pulled off without feeling forced or contrived (something I can't say of all films ...like THE DESCENT).

Surprisingly this film got poor reviews and pretty much flopped at the box office (costing over $40 million to make but only grossing $10 million). Shame. It's actually better than you might think.

why haven't i heard about this movie? someone should have made some noise for this! seeing a movie with no expectations makes it greater then it might deserve but i think i would rate it high even with high expectations.

the first half is extremely creepy and i would compare it to Alien. yea yea, fan boys will ofc hate me, but i have seen no other movie that i would compare to Alien except this one. i have never seen a movie that kept me so focused. i was trying to eat my dinner as i started this movie and i think it took me 1h+ to get the dinner down cause i didn't wanna look away. the story isn't even that original (are there original movies left to be made?) but the pieces picked from stories already told are put together in a really awesome way which makes it feel new and fresh. i think you could make 5-6 movies by picking out parts of Pandorum and developing them. I'm glad they kept it as one compact, awesome flick!

I thought this movie did an excellent job of tapping into a number of deep-rooted fears that seem to be universal - claustrophobia, loneliness, loss of memory, large semi-dark areas with things that go bump, not to mention suddenly waking up and not knowing what the heck is going on all around you.

It had some nice "seat jump" scenes, and had moments where it was surprising funny.

And lots of nice twists too - don't see that enough in movies in general any more!

I can't comment too much on the "technical" aspects of the film, sorry, I'm just more of "was it a good, believable story" person. This was.

I have to say this movie was better than I expected. If you liked Aliens and Resident Evil...this is like both of those movies got together and had a sequel. Well not quite, but the story was good and had no gaping holes in it. The acting was good without going over the top.

I loved the way this movie started; guy wakes up from hyper-sleep…his memory is not fully functional, he knows things are not right and has to save the day.

I thought the story was great in that they did not over-explain everything like they have in so many sci-fi movies. The mid plot line was very good never found myself asking "what the hell are you doing", and the ending was very good without being so trivially expected.

Of course Dennis Quaid is a great actor but I really liked watching Ben Foster. He was one of the best actors in 3:10 to Yuma.

Special effects were good but did not need to be over the top because the story was solid. Worth the price of admission.

Better than you'd expect. I was shocked that movies like this.. can still sell and be good enough to watch. The theater was packed. Nobody was disappointed. Grade A- acting. Intense action! New superstars will emerge from this one. I won't spoil it by telling you who. You'll see. Rating >> 8.1

Antibodies director Christian Alvart takes suspense into space with this tale of two astronauts who realize that they aren't alone as they drift into the darkest corners of our galaxy. Awakening in their hyper-sleep chamber with no memory of who they are or what their mission is, disoriented astronauts Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) gradually surmise that they are the only ones aboard the darkened spacecraft. But how did they get here, and what are those strange sounds coming from the belly of the ship? The only way out of their hyper-sleep chamber is a narrow air shaft, and the only one small enough to climb through it is Corporal Bower. As the younger of the two space travelers shimmies inside, the older remains behind to offer guidance on the radio transmitter. But the deeper Corporal Bower ventures into the ship, the more apparent it becomes that something horrible has happened. Could it be that the survival of the entire human race rests in the hands of these two astronauts stuck on a lonely ship in deep space?