Pandorum (2009) Review

Written by: Aidan13   

We should all know by now that Space is not a good place for us humans to venture.  It seems there is a never ending array of horrible things creeping in the dark that want to kill us in all manners of unpleasant ways.  Have we learned nothing from the Alien series, Event Horizon and two many other Science Fiction oriented horror films?  Apparently not…

I enjoyed this film…I paid to go see a “Monsters in the dark” film and that is pretty much what I got.  Believe it or not, it actually had a story to go along with it!  And what’s refreshing about the story is that it’s really a mystery…you don’t know what’s truly going on till about the last 15 minutes of the film where everything is explained to you.  I personally like the horror in space archetype…I wish it were used more often.

The story starts out with the ships flight crew receiving a transmission from Earth stating that everyone aboard this ship is the last of humanity…the Earth has died out and we learn that it succumbed to Nuclear devastation as the remaining civilization has been engaged in endless war for the last of the planets resources…hence why they send a ship with 16,000 people aboard it…in hopes of preserving mankind by finding another earth like planet somewhere out among the stars.  We flash forward to an unknown time and see our main two characters Cpl Bower and Lt Payton wake up from hyper sleep completely disoriented and not sure what their mission is or where they are headed…they remember their training and know their way around the ships various instruments but that is all at first. 

Now I don’t want to say too much else about the film other than be prepared for a twist you will not see coming at the end which I thought was pretty cool as I did not see it myself…I will say this however…there are roughly 16,000 crew members and just over 1,000 of them actually survive…so you do the math on the human/death ratio.  The “Monsters” in the film are fast, aggressive and will rip you to pieces…not a very nice way to go…they too are explained but you will have to be patient for this revelation to come. 

This movie offered some good special effects, some nice gore and death scenes, decent acting and a pretty decent script surprising.  Not for the Claustrophobic or anyone afraid of the dark…there are many “Jump scares” in this film.  Not too bad for the start of our favorite holiday which is just around the corner!  Enjoy!