Pandorum: Review By Big Mike

A great blend of horror and suspense. "Pandorum" is one of the few best films of 2009. In my mind, the "bad" years of the movies occurred in 2008 and 2009. Although "The Dark Knight" and "Slumdog Millionaire" were in 2008, it just wasn't enough to make good movies. 2009 had "The Hurt Locker" and "Distrrict 9" (I would add "Avatar" but it kinda sucked). Those movies weren't enough in my mind to push the great limits. 2010 was better, "Toy Story 3," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1," were good, "The Fighter" has been nominated and looks fantastic. "Pandorum" deserved more attention, it was better than people thought it was and in my mind deserved a nomination.

The story was interesting, a squad of crew members awake on a spaceship with no memory of what they did before they woke. In the ship there are these "monsters" that eat human flesh. Not really zombies but these freaky creatures with sharp teeth. The crew members try and avoid these things and head toward the generator reactor for if they do not get to it in time, the remainder of the ship's energy will vanish. Will they get their in time or will pandorum consume them? If you don't know, Pandorum is a disease from being in space too long. It isn't a real disease, it is fictional. The story is interesting because well, in my experience the story just swooped me off my feet. Reading the description of the movie made me want to know; what the hell are they going to do?

The acting was fantastic. A Great cast consisting of, Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue, and Cung Le. Dennis Quaid stars as "Lt. Payton", the leading officer of the unit. Ben Foster plays second in command, he plays "Bower" a person who has nothing to lose and risks his life trying to save the humans on the ship. Cam Gigandet plays "Gallo" a very mysterious character, pops up from no where and paranoid. Antje Traue plays "Nadia" a professional "survivalist" when it comes to staying away from the evil creatures that lurk the ship. Cung Le plays "Manh" a warrior (if you will) that loves to kill the creatures. The cast is very powerful and "new." And by new I mean, Cam Gigandet, he was in "Never Back Down" he played "Ryan McCarthy" a supposed bad-ass kid in the film. I don't see him in movies much but when I do he is USUALLY good. And Dennis Quaid, a very powerful actor that has been around movies for a long time, he was in "The Rookie" and "Traffic." Both great films.

The directing was beautifully crafted by Christian Alvart. He did a great job capturing the terror and fear throughout the whole film. He has directed "Case 39" which came out earlier this year, he has also directed "Anitbodies" which was released in 2005 which later went on to win 6 awards. He has been making horror genre movies since 1999. In "Pandorum" he does a great job with camera angles, "smart" camera angles go on throughout the movie. He also does a good job making the ship a dark enviorment because of it's physical status. All in all- great job directing!

The visuals were near perfect. The gore. The make-up stunningly real. The muck on the actors face, cuts, and bruises looked just like the ones I get when I get hurt. Cornelia Ott did the make-up. She has done the make-up for "Valkyrie," "The Ghost Writer," and for the future movie, "Unknown." "Valkyrie" was a very great movie, powerful cast and a tremendous job by Brian Singer. Ralf Schreck also helped in make-up, he also did the make-up for "Valkyrie" too. The visuals in my mind A-. Some scenes seemed obviously fake but. . . nothing in a can be perfect.

The movie is truly a must see and earned it's rights to become a favorite movie of mine. It's got all the elements to a great movie, Story (5 stars) Acting (4.5 stars) Directing (5stars) and Visuals (4.5 stars). The overall is 4.5. Which is very good since it is out of 5. The movie is curvaceous in the arts of terror (pretty much means sexy). Go see it.