September, like February, is a notoriously bad month for movies. Trapped somewhere between the Summer blockbusters and the Holiday family features, Hollywood throws out the movies that haven't done as well at test screening, or are generally hard to market. Not to say there aren't some gems, however.
This week features Surrogates, a sharp looking sci-fi feature starring Bruce Willis, which wasn't screened for critics but had a big media push, meaning studios expect one big weekend driven by Willis and then a slew of negative feedback to bomb all subsequent weeks. Fame also opens, and while it might do well for those who were dying for a remake of the 80's musical, I can't say I'm part of that demographic. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men also comes out on the indie scene, a film written and directed by John Krasinski of The Office.
For myself though, the one that raised the most eyebrows (and questions, thanks to its muddy ad campaign) was...
PANDORUM (2009)
Look at that poster, doesn't it just tell you everything you need to know about a movie? The other 4 one-sheets produced do no better.
Well, sometimes it IS better to walk blind into a movie, and for those bold and curious movie-goers, they'll find a film that is generally full of good scares and jumps, but has a little too much going on for its own good. Pandorum could have been a mini-series and filled about five hours with all the concepts it tries to explore.
The film takes place in the future in about 150 years, when the human race's population has grown to about 24 billion. Not unrealistic, seeing as IRL it has doubled in the last forty years. The ensuing resource shortages inspire Earth to build a vast cargo ship and send it into space to colonize a new planet. Good thing, too, as the first words spoken in the film are a final transmission from Earth. "You are all that is left of us. Good Luck, and Godspeed." Some catastrophe has destroyed Earth, and this ship has become the new Noah's Ark.
So, of course, everything gets fucked up.
Cut to an indeterminate amount of time later, Bower (Ben Foster) wakes from a prolonged hyper-sleep to discover that the ship is in terrible shape and probably on the verge of a reactor explosion. He, guided by Payton (Dennis Quaid), a CO trapped in a computer room for most of the film, has to get into the ship's belly in order to get the power back on and stop the ensuing explosion. Unfortunately, between him and the reactor is a swarm of nasty-looking monster things that have taken to booby-trapping the ship and eating the crew.
What ensues is two hours of tributes to various other science fiction movies. The ship design and its dark interiors are akin to Alien's Nostromo. The crew, constantly running for survival from the creature hunting parties, have become a Road Warrior band of rag-clad fighters wielding fantasy blades. The creatures themselves bear no small resemblance to the Orcs of Moria. The general plot, and the eventual reveal as to the identities of the creatures, is reminiscient of Robert Heinlein's story Orphans of the Sky.
Oh, and while all of this is going on, Bowers and Payton both fear that they might be suffering from Pandorum, known to Ren and Stimpy fans as SPACE MADNESS, a condition which tricks those who suffer from it to sabotage their own ship in order to escape its confines.
Pandorum is weak in a few regards, all stemming from its writing. Technically, the film is polished and proficient, and we'll come back to that. But the writing... oh, the devil is in the details, isn't it?
First off, you have to know or be into sci-fi to keep up with this movie. For me and many other genre fans, this is no problem. But if you're trying to get a wide audience, then when the show opens with Bowers and Payton talking about warp core break-downs and particle accelerators and vector correction and blah, blah, blah you've just lost everyone who isn't into Star Trek. So, if you're looking for a good horror flick to bring a date to, this isn't the one.
Secondly, the movie has at least one concept too many. It starts simply and effectively, with a great horror element, and builds perhaps too quickly. Bowers wakes up on a derelict ship, got it. Oh shit, there are monsters, okay. Oh, and the other crew members are fighting for food. Oh, and there's s
pace madness, here's a brief history of that. Oh and the ship is going to explode. And you have to protect this huge ark of genetic material. And there's a mystery about where the monsters come from. And one of the crew members may just be an illusion. And there's a mystery about Bowers' wife. And there's this whole thematic thing about there beign no morality in space. Here's some more crazy space-madness fighting. Hey, we're all pumped full of genetic-enhancement sauce and evolve crazy fast, weird. And no one knows how long the ship's been flying itself, there are no stars, and everyone's lost.Now, I'm always down for a complex story. But it just seems like none of the concepts really had time to simmer, as about every concept from every space story Heinlein or Ellison ever cooked up made some sort of appearance.
Lastly, it gets kind of silly at some points. Design in the movie is generally good, but why did the ship survivors all make knives from scrap that look like Klingon war blades? Did you know that if you're a farmer or a biological egineer, and you're trapped on a ship for a few months, you develop ninja-like flipping, fighting, and rope trick powers? Its takes two hours to get down to the reactor when its going to explode, but about 30 seconds to get back to the bridge when its no longer a plot point. And, for me, the whole thing came apart when they introduced the Deus Ex Machina of The Cook. The Cook is the old black chef who as been out of hyper-sleep for years, wandering the ship. He's crazy, and speaks in rhymes and riddles (I hate when writers do that. I'm not sure which I hate more, harlequinn rhyming characters, or obligatory twins), and somehow knows everything that happened on the ship years and years and years ago, despite being a COOK and probably having no access to any sort of records. Other than why he knows everything every other character doesn't, he'll explain everything to the crew in big blocks of sing-songy exposition.
Despite my complaints, I liked Pandorum. Didn't love it, but enjoyed it. And the audience I was with did too, there were some applause during a particularly brutal fight between the ninja-farmers and a Moria Orc.
Its well directed. This is Christian Alvart's first major US release, and he's put together a very slick-looking, dark and creepy movie. Especially at the start of the movie, where atmosphere is most critical, he's done an expert job of making the ship feel cramped, dark, and uncomfortable. Bower's trip through the pipe-lines of the ship feels truly claustrophobic, even to the audience. And when the Orcs come out to play, the cuts come fast, the sound is tremendously loud and unsettling. The audience gets drawn in. Off to a great start.
You could almost play a drinking game to Pandorum, one shot every time Bowers gets knocked down or falls down. He hits the ground probably 20 times. Regardless of his time spent lying prone, Ben Foster puts in a great performance, and I'm glad to see him fin
ally take the lead in a movie. Don't listen to the poster, this is Ben's movie, not Dennis'. After Foster's turn as the 2nd in command crazy from 3:10 to Yuma, it seemed only a matter of time before he got tested in a leading role, and he comes through admirably. Veteran Quaid does come through as well, having saved all his acting for this movie, it seems, as it was definitely missing from GI Joe.Pandorum, ultimately, is a great looking sci-fi horror film that doesn't hold back at any point. Its gory when it needs to be, fast-paced, its sounds are intense and jarring, with a decent score. The writing could have used a bit of a tweak, or else it could have used another hour in a director's cut to really explore all of its themes. But, if you're a fan of sci-fi, and you're no stranger to the genre and its conventions, then you'll have no problem weaving your way through the complexities of this story, and undoubtedly you'll find a lot to enjoy.
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