Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

You're telling me that little piece of metal broke the the starships front glass..

How often is that that a bad, usually awful film can actually redeem itself with a half decent twist at the end? It's a trick as rare finding a lost artefact, but it can happen. While there are various examples one can point to for this to happen (like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire or Cloverfield), the specific example being discussed here is Pandorum. Let's take a look at this case study.Now there are various bad aspects of the film which have earned its rightly deserved negative press. The acting ranges from average to underwhelming, most notably with main players Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid. The former is bland to the point of monotony, and the latter while usually reliable overplays it to the point of hammy. Not to mention how utterly redundant the movie is as well. The movie rips off various other sci-fi, fantasy and horror movies in a way that seems like it was trying to create a blend to build something new, but instead is about as unoriginal as it gets. The ship that occupies most of the film heavily resembles the Nostromo from Alien. The bad guys, despite being designed by the Stan Winston Company, heavily resemble the Orcs from Lord Of The Rings if they were more pasty white. In other words The Hobbit type. The idea of paranoia in a confined space not to mention outer space has been explored before, with the likes of The Shining and Solaris. However it isn't just good movies Pandorum steals from. Oh no, the film is so derivative that it snatches elements from bad films too, making it feel furtherly lame. The main badass lady character in the film is a direct rip off of Alice from the awful Resident Evil movies, while the compartments among other aspects of the ship resemble those of prior laughably bad sci-fi horror Event Horizon. The fact that the film has Paul W. S. Anderson as producer who worked on both films isn't a surprise. On top of this, the various lame jump scares used throughout the film are not too dissimilar from the various teen slashers over the last few decades. Given that this film belongs to such a compelling genre like sci-fi horror, one would expect more originality in the initial plot threads.Not to mention how unexciting it all is. There is no tension simply because the characters are far too two dimensional and stock to be compelling, all the while the lame jump scares and occasional bad lighting are clear attempts to frighten the audience in cheap ways, attributing to how bad the director is at building it through any other means. It leaves the film overall an uninspired mess of which fails to frighten, unnerve and mostly entertain the viewer.So why the high rating? Well, it is because the movie actually has the balls to take an unexpected turn at the end and actually give us a nice addition to the presumably overdone genre of sci-fi horror. That being that the end twist is that one of the characters suffers with split personality disorder, of which is partially linked to a disease nicknamed Pandorum, hence the title of the film. While it makes the film arguably furtherly derivative of the various films that have already played this card in their storylines (from Psycho to Fight Club), this element of it being done in sci-fi horror is new and adds a decent twist in an otherwise pretty crappy movie.So I can recommend Pandorum? Not really. the derivative nature of the film, coupled with the lack of a compelling plot or characters for the most part fails to gain the attention of the viewer and therefore make it mostly not worth your while. However, the creative direction it takes towards the end is worth waiting for, and makes the experience all worth it. It is better than its cousin for Event Horizon that's for sure, of which is the opposite to this film: mostly fine but ruined by its last segment. Not bad, but not remarkable either. Certainly not worth a sequel though, despite what some Facebook groups would have you believe.

A well-directed, gripping, and suspenseful sci-fi horror/thriller that has the element that is missing the most from the large majority of recent years sci-fis: a good story, with the necessary twist at the finalé. Of course, excellent acting and solid special effects are also present, but these alone do not make a good film; good stories do.

Weak sci-fi thriller had potential in it's premise, that two spacemen (Ben Folds and Dennis Quaid) awaken from a very extended hyper-sleep and find themselves aboard a ship inhabited by primitive humans fighting to survive against strange mutant creatures. The story in many ways reminded me of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" with a man from the past waking up in the distant future to find primitive and naive humans at the mercy of monsters. Unfortunately, this film doesn't spend much time developing characters or story and instead focuses on action. There are attempts as suspense, but an over reliance on jump-scares over building suspense or atmosphere kills off any credibility. What is credible is some terrific production design and make- up effects, which along with strong performances by Folds and Quaid, were enough to hold my interest and hold out hope that the film was about to become good at any moment. Overall, this sci-fi/horror flick is a disappointment, so if you do plan to watch it, go in with low expectations and you may find it passable entertainment.