Pandorum – Blu-ray Review
The Film:
If I ever live long enough to see such things as hyper-sleep or space travel come to fruition, I’m just going to skip it. How many science-fiction films do we need to see, where this amazing technology fails? In a future where we have this incredible ability to travel light years, why is it things don’t work? In Pandorum, Bower (Ben Foster) is accidentally woken up from hyper-sleep to find himself disoriented and alone. He forcefully wakes his superior, Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) to help him figure out what’s going on. Initially they think they are alone, and cannot figure out their mission or how to get to the bridge of the ship.
Elysian, their ship, is perhaps their tomb. The one thing that sticks out is the gorgeous set design. Hallways, huge spaces, the ship, are all done brilliantly, giving us a sense of scale and scope. The lighting helps bring us into the ship’s isolated feel. If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ll know that there is some sort of creatures in the film, and on an FX and make-up stand point, they too are amazing. The film is definitely impressive on a technical front, but cosmetic propensity aside, the biggest draw back the film has is the script.
There this attempt to be meaningful about the human will power to survive, but they bite off more than they can handle, even at a 121 minute running time. After the first act of exploring the ship and wondering what their mission is, the film tells us that humans have over-populated Earth and due to this population boom, natural resources were fought over and eventually were depleted. In a disparate attempt at survival we actively looked for another Earth-like planet to go to. So basically the Elysian is a Noah’s Ark and the mission is to relocate us to this new Earth. Pretty cool, and timely, as this issues are coming to reality for us now, but there’s literally too much going on, and very little resolution or answers given. It’s sort of a mystery when it comes to these cannibalistic invaders. They’re all Mad Max-like, but instead of gasoline, they are after food. Then we’ve got two human characters that seem all bad-ass in survival mode, one can not talk, and one is pure exposition, but why?
The nature of the title in relation to the film’s plot seems like a tangent. Pandorum is a certain state of mental denial and disillusionment, but what does it matter when we’re going to Earth 2? Action heavy, atmospheric, and great visuals almost save the film from some muddy ideas and plotting. He might be a bane to some movie goers, Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Event Horizon) lands the producer role, even though the film feels more like his, than director Christian Alvert (Antibodies). I think crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th said it best about it having a death curse, except the “it” this time is humans, because after the set-up as to why we left Earth, the drama on the ship, and the film’s resolution doesn’t feel very hope inspiring as I think the filmmakers wanted it to intend. Did we learn from prior mistakes? Nothing in these two hours, made me think that this time we would respect our environment. Even though the film is a decent matinée flick for sci-fi fans, in terms of humanity and hope, we’re doomed. Maybe we, as well as, science-fiction movies need to accept the inevitability of our extinction. Now, there’s a great film idea waiting to be made.
The Blu-ray:
Audio/Video: Anchor Bay’s high def presentation won’t really “wow” many, but the film’s look is really stylized, forcing a hard proposition for the transfer. Dark blues and blacks are the focus, and the cinematography is really dark, making a proper assessment harder than normal. While details and clairty within the transfer are high, but blues and blacks make the appearance rather average in the HD world of things. Now, the Dolby audio just simply wrecks havoc. The sound design works wonderful in a home theater, with great atmospheric surround elements and deep-deep-bass. All in all, a decent HD effort.
Commentary: Say what you will about the film, the commentary is a pretty good listen. Full of info, the director Alvert and his producer chat about the production, themes, and interesting tidbits.
The World of Elysian: Even though it’s only 14 minutes long, this is a nice piece, especially if a commentary isn’t up your alley. It looks at effects, set design, the screenplay, all in HD.
Flight Team Training Video: Here’s an original piece, running a few minutes as if your an astronaut for the Elysian. Cute. In HD.
What Happened to Nadia’s Team: Another original HD short that shows us, um..what happened. It’s okay, runs 5 minutes.
Deleted Scenes: Over 28 minutes worth, and they are worth watching, as many expand the film’s future world. In HD (but color timing is off).
Trailers, a Still Gallery, and a Digital Copy finishes off the extras.
Conclusion: A confused piece of sci-fi, but worth renting. Blu-ray is decent too.
The Film: Rating: 
The Blu-ray: Rating:
