Pandorum - 4/5

I'm on a roll! First I saw the stellar sci fi film "Moon" and then I hit up "Pandorum" and get nailed with another monster of a film. Granted this one isn't going to be considered a 'classic' anytime soon like the other one I mentioned, but that didn't stop this one from being a nice atmospheric thrill ride that happened to have a pretty solid story. "Pandorum" hit me in all the right places and its hard to say that I wasn't loving it.

Mixing a bit of "Event Horizon" with a dash of "Alien" with a splice of post apocalyptic mayhem via "Doomsday", "Pandorum" seemed to be firing on all cylinders right from the get go. When it wanted to be moody initially it was hitting all the right notes. When it wanted to be action packed, it had you one the edge of your seat. When it wanted to be thought provoking, it nailed you with some solid science fiction writing. Really, "Pandorum" was hitting almost everything it wanted as a film.

Not to mention that Ben Foster as Bower was hitting it for me. I love that guy. Everything he's in just strikes a note for me and this one is no exception. I wanted to get a bit more back story for Mr. Quaid's character which tends to come and go throughout the film, although the ending had some great moments for him. I kept wanting a bit more for him as I like him as an actor. The same goes for some of the side characters particularly our resident badass, the Vietnamese guy, who intrigued me far more than I think he was supposed to. Why couldn't he speak English? Why was he so badass? I wanted to know! Unfortunately those characters tend to be left back to focus on our two main guys and a story that increasingly gets more complicated and awesome.

I have to also give Alvart significant credit here. He was hitting a lot of great shots, creating some solid atmosphere, nailing the pace, and using some great elements. I have to mention his use of color here as it really struck a solid chord on my noggin. The blues, reds, greens, and yellows spice up your usual drab space station colors more often than not and added a nice variety and layer to otherwise straightforward scenes. Nice!

I have to give it to "Pandorum" - perhaps not the most original sci fi adventure I've seen, but I was enjoying the hell out of it. Highly recommended. 

Written By Matt Reifschneider