Pandorum
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Complex and deeply cliched sci-fi horror excursion in which two astronauts (Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster) awaken from an eight-year hypersleep to learn that their spacecraft, a sort of Noah's Ark designed to keep life from Earth in existence, has a balky power plant and a violent past. Director Christian Alvart serves up a heaping helping of pesky mutants with ninja skills, but the largely routine proceedings are somewhat redeemed by a surprisingly upbeat double-twist ending. At least one rough term, occasional profane and crass language, and some martial arts and knife violence. A-III -- adults. (R) 2009
Full Review
Hypersleep is tough on movie characters, and even more brutal on science-fiction plots.
In "Pandorum" (Overture), a complex and deeply cliched horror excursion, director Christian Alvart and screenwriter Travis Milloy have astronauts Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Cpl. Bower (Ben Foster), awaken from an eight-year hypersleep -- six years longer than they were supposed to have had before resuming their shift -- to find that they can't recall their spaceship's mission.
On top of that, their dark and very noisy craft, the Elysium, which appears to be twice as immense as the one in Mel Brooks' spoof "Spaceballs," has a balky power plant that needs a reset, plus an infestation of pesky mutants who have somehow mastered ninja fighting.
As the intrepid Bower, radioing his progress to Payton, snakes his way to the power plant while coming across a few terrified crew members and a heaping helping of surly mutants, in between a lot of psychobabble, we learn the Elysium's mission: It's a sort of Noah's Ark designed to take Earth life forms to another hospitable planet when Earth was about to go kaboom.
But treachery from an earlier crew driven mad by the aftereffects of hypersleep (called Pandorum, you see) was afoot during the past eight years, and the pale, blobby mutants somehow evolved and are skittering about.
Just as this tired mix of devices borrowed from other films has run its course, the saga is partly redeemed by a surprising double-twist ending, making the whole trip -- well, at least the moviegoers', anyway -- appear somehow worthwhile. Strong language is the only objectionable element; the action violence is what you'd expect from kung-fu mutants, and there are some knife fights as well.
Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic
merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating,
the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief
synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
- A-I -- general patronage;
- A-II -- adults and adolescents;
- A-III -- adults;
- A-IV**
- L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
- O -- morally offensive.
** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.