Pandorum

Coming up with an original idea is never easy. The da Vincis and Teslas are rare anomalies. Even geniuses of their calibre worked from the ideas of others, or from nature. When it comes to the arts, this process of developing from what went before is just as common, and often what can be considered truly “original” usually ends up being so self-indulgent as to be inaccessible to anyone but the artist and pretentious academics who purport to understand the artist’s concepts. Science-fiction has always been a hotbed of ideas that usually start with a “what if…”, and some have even come to be realised by science and technology. Nowadays, however, especially in the world of movies, we are mostly riffing off old ideas and concepts. Take ALIEN (showing at that year’s Oktoberfest all nighter), undoubtedly one of the great sci-fi films of all time; it was famously pitched by Ridley Scott as “Jaws in space”. There is one school of thought that says there are only six stories in the whole world, or if you subscribe to Joseph Campbell’s theory of mythology then there is only one – the hero’s journey. So it is hardly surprising that when a film such as PANDORUM comes along it looks somewhat familiar.

What is interesting about this film is that both screenwriter Travis Milloy and director Christian Alvart had both independently written a very similar story about astronauts in space, which was discovered when Alvart was asked to direct Milloy’s original PANDORUM screenplay They ended up collaborating on the final script, which tells the story of two astronauts awakened from hyper-sleep and find themselves locked in a cabin with almost no memories of who or where they are. Bower (Ben Foster), the younger, lower-ranking officer crawls through the vessels ducting system to find out where they are and a means of escape, while the senior Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) guides him by radio. Bower soon discovers they are not alone on the ship, but isn’t sure who the others are, before he finds out there are handful of human survivors and host of carnivorous creatures after them. As Bower memory starts to return he remembers where they are and what he does, and with the help of the other survivors does his best to try and save the ship and its precious cargo.

For hardcore sci-fi fans this film will seem all too familiar. Movies such as EVENT HORIZON (Paul WS Anderson is PANDORUM’s producer), ALIEN, CHRYSALIS, EDEN LOG and even SERENITY immediately spring to mind, which is a bit of a shame because it is not a bad movie, there is just a sense of déjà vu. Quaid and Foster both give excellent performances, with Foster definitely being a character actor to watch. Like Sam Rockwell, he is an actor who totally inhabits a role so that you don’t know him as an actor, unlike stars such Tom Cruise or Will Smith. Check out Foster on ImdB to see how diverse he is.

PANDORUM might not have the ideas that SURROGATES does, but it is a far more dirty, dark, claustrophobic, intense film than the sunnier Disney effort, even if both films end on a note of hope. And because PANDORUM is a basic survival film it does not suffer from the gaping plot holes of SURROGATES, it just gives you plenty of action and thrills with a few interesting twists.

If you are a seasoned sci-fi film watcher, and can overlook the “been-there-seen-that” aspect, there is plenty to enjoy with this film, and if you are quite new to the genre then you won’t be disappointed.

PANDORUM is out in the UK from October 2 through Icon.

Watch the trailer here