Andr? Hennicke, Antje Traue, Ben Foster

Two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. It's pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the ship...( read more  read more... ). They can't remember anything. Who are they? What is their mission? With Lt. Payton staying behind to guide him via radio transmitter, Cpl. Bower ventures deep into the ship and begins to uncover a terrifying reality. Slowly the spacecraft's shocking, deadly secrets are revealed, and the astronauts find their own survival is more important than they could ever have imagined.

Flixster Users

55% liked it

69,306 ratings

Critics

27% liked it

66 critics

R, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Christian Alvart

Release Date: September 25, 2009

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DVD Release Date: December 31, 2009

Stats: 2,794 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (2,794)


  • October 30, 2009
    Pandorum is a movie that takes place in a distant future; when mankind has exhausted its time on a single planet and vowed to conquer the rest of the universe with its advanced technology. This movie takes that concept and flings you right in the middle of a mysterious series of ...( read more)events that begin to unfold from the film's very first scene.

    As an astronaut wakes up from cryogenic slumber, his world is turned upside down when his memory begins to fail him as to who he is and what he's doing there. As it turns out, he has been asleep for quite some time and is on a rotating schedule with other crew members to man the mission to a far-off world over extended periods of time (the years it would take to reach the final destination.) Well, low and behold, nobody is around to greet him and things start to get nasty from that point on.

    As the man tries to cope readjusting, he comes across a commander who seems to be going through the same delirious side effects of a mental condition known as--you guessed it--pandorum. If the crew members can stave off the ffects of this degenerative condition and stay alive long enough to seek the truth of their mission, they will be more than okay. Oh yeah, and did I mention that something is on the ship--impeding their happy-go-lucky way to finish their task. Something nasty has mutated and is now hunting them down.

    The movie is pretty sleek in visual aesthetic for being an "indie" with a meager budget. The cast, including Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster is not stellar--but the actors do a fine job at maintaining a sense of gravitas in a genre flick that could have become very stale. A decent script is probably the reason why the film really never fell flat.

    Stylistically, the film portrays a far-future so interesting--even though the entire movie takes place aboard the one ship. It is in classic sci-fi fashion (like its predecessors Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey) that Pandorum takes the vastness of space and makes you feel confined and claustrophobic. It is with these techniques and a visual flare that the movie rises above its deficiencies.

    With a bunch of cool lighting effects (black lights and neon) the movie gains its visual signature and stands out as a cool-looking flick. The monsters that linger within the ships bowels are strikingly reminiscent of those in the spelunker's nightmare, The Descent. Only these guys are equiped with bad-ass laser guns.

    Overall, the movie is worthy of being seen...preferrably in theaters; but otherwise watch it on a big screen.
  • October 23, 2009
    Pandorum was a huge disappointment to me. I knew nothing about the film, and foolishly took that as a promising factor. It turned out to be very irritating and painfully dull. The film revolves around Ben Foster running around a ship, and Dennis Quaid sitting in a chair doing NOT...( read more)HING. Quaid is the equivalent to some computer game character that always calls you up with your next mission, or a simple hint. The mutants are poorly designed, or at least, ineffective at being scary. Only a small child mutant comes close to chilling. The film is very dark, and it's hard to see anything. At first this added to the claustrophobia and uncertainty, but it soon became apparent that light wasn't coming. To add to the confusion, every time there was an attack of some kind, the cameras would shake uncontrollably, making it even harder to see. The film is slow and has been done better else where.
  • October 21, 2009
    Hard to sum this film up really, add alittle 'Aliens', 'Alien' and 'Event Horizon', then a total rip of 'The Descent' and 'The Cave', set in space aboard yet another derelict spacecraft and film it in near total darkness using choppy/fast cutting camera work with loads of unusual...( read more) angles and there you have it :)

    I liked this film because it was alittle different and sci-fi but 'alittle' being the operative word haha the plot is a mish mash of all films said above and it doesn't really hide that fact, even the creatures are pretty much the same as the creatures in 'The Descent', with a slight 'Mad Max' touch about them if you ask me (their homemade armour) as do certain crew survivors along the way.
    The whole thing starts off pretty well and keeps you really glued to the screen, Foster is excellent as usual, almost too good for the film really, the rest merely make up the cast to an average standard, Quaid being badly miscast as a mental baddie that looks like Dallas from Alien or a slim Captain Nemo hehe
    Effects are also likeable and look space age yet murky and eerie at the same time (Event Horizon style), creature makeup is also top notch again showing up cgi for being crap half the time. Problem is as the film moves forward it becomes less intriguing and more confusing and rather stupid. The creatures simply turn into a gang of zombie like flesh chompers that run around screaming , getting killed and at one point have a one on one martial arts style kendo fight with one of the disposable 'heroes', a loooow point there.

    As you near the end of the film there are twists galore as you completely lose the plot haha and trying to actually see what the hell is going on through the darkness and epileptic fit inducing camera work, but there is something here that does entice me still, despite all its failings I do actually kinda like the film and I'm not sure why. Acting by Foster helps, it looks good is another factor and it moves at a good pace with a reasonable plot (people trapped with lots of creatures after them is a good solid winner normally hehe) despite quite afew questions that linger in the air.

    There is an obvious sequel there too but lets not go there, not yet anyway.
  • October 17, 2009
    like frankenstein's monster, like a film school project, this one's a trip into the dark cribbed from...but that's half the fun of this film, figuring out where they cribbed from ("that's not unca fester, but that's his nose on that guy, sure enuff..."). don't be discouraged tho...( read more), as this is still a worthy halloween season contender...
  • October 15, 2009
    This movie was so0o0o fucking random at all the right moments. I loved it.
  • November 21, 2009
    Interesting movie! Intriguing story plot. Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster stars. Worth seeing!
  • November 21, 2009
    Soooooooo.......good is was recockulous....great movie.....not a dull moment....the beginning, middle, and end was great......one of my favorite horror sci-fi ......I thought the cast was a little off at first but they did a great job one of the best movies ever
  • November 19, 2009
    This was intense. Crazy intense. I liked it, but I'm having a hard time describing it. Worth watching for sci-fi/thriller/horror-heads. I may need to see it again...
  • November 19, 2009
    The best sci-fi flick I've seen in ages! It's a ride from beginning to end with great acting and creative design through and through. Don't expect the typical. By the ending I was left wishing It was a trilogy! If only that was logically possible!
  • November 19, 2009
    A pretty decent sc-fi horror with a decent twist ending.

Critic Reviews


October 4, 2009
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

Action mayhem full of gibbering hominoids, hanging corpses and a few live stars. full review

September 25, 2009
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

The further Bower journeys into the spacecraft's bowels, with Payton providing navigation tips from back in their original sleep chamber, the less Pandorum unnerves. full review

View more Pandorum reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • bobsteele0069
    October 9, 2009
    I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. I was excited by the previews, but then the reviews came out and they were not very favorable. I went with my gut and went anyway. I'm not gonna say much except for solid performances all around. Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster especially, but the movie is alot smarter than it lets you tend to believe until the end. It has aspects of alot of different films. Alien, Dark City, Event Horizon, etc...I will be adding it to my actual collection when it comes to DVD.

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