'Pandorum' deep-space-scifi horror 2009 film discussion

[Pingfah]

Good set design, everything else about it was shit. Especially the monsters.

Couldn't hardly be worse than Supernova though, so that's not saying much.

Supernova had Robin Tunney's breasts at least.

Tinted so they appear to be Angela Bassett's though

I take back what I said anyway, since I just remembered that Supernova isn't actually even the worst Sci-Fi movie called Supernova.

 

[Starkers]

I saw this at the cinema and felt it veered from brilliant to utter drek then back again. Very odd film.

Event Horizon is loads better...

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I think you can call it a toss up which movie is actually better between, Pandorum, Supernova and Event Horizon. They are all okay, science fiction movies. I would include the movie Sphere in this mix, however Sphere goes to show you that you can pretty faithfully adapt a book and it doesn't work.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

They're not zombies, they're a mutant strain of humans evolved over centuries of lightless/cannibalistic/biological contaminated existence in the bowls of a spaceship.

Sci-fi Horror Rocks! But not all Sci-fi Horror Movies stand up.

IMO:

Event Horizon was good up until Hell showed up and over-abundance of splattergore ruined everything. If the ship had actually been possessed, rather than Sam Neil chewing on scenery, would have been much better. Great sets/FX. C+

Supernova was good for all of 5-10 minutes before the plot kicked in. Spader was ripped in this one. He really rolled down hill on Boston Legal. OK sets/FX. Ass

Sunshine was pretty great throughout. I like this one and don't mind the craziness at the end. Excellent sets/FX. A

Pandorum is also pretty great. I quite enjoyed all aspects of it. The action, acting, setting, mood, were all well done. Excellent sets/FX. A

Sphere - I'll include this, since it was mentioned, but there's not much of a horror angle to this one, more of a WTF is going on/time travel/superpowers angle. The set-up was great, finding/exploring the spaceship was great, everything else was awful. Shockingly, Hollywood managed to ruin an excellent Crichton novel. Decent sets/FX. D

 

[JarodRussell]

I never got the love for Sunshine. It's just beautiful images connected with a swiss cheese plot and very, very, very stupid characters.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

Other than the Chinese guy fucking up the course correction, and the Metaknowledge of their diversion to secure the second superbomb being A Bad Idea, I don't remember much in the way of outright character stupidity. Though there were lots of psychological twitches developing over the long voyage causing not so smart in light of their mission character conflict. What did you have in mind?

 

[JarodRussell]

Other than the Chinese guy fucking up the course correction, and the Metaknowledge of their diversion to secure the second superbomb being A Bad Idea, I don't remember much in the way of outright character stupidity. Though there were lots of psychological twitches developing over the long voyage causing not so smart in light of their mission character conflict. What did you have in mind?

It's a long time I've seen it.

Well, the guy fucking up the course correction was extremely stupid. Could they really not think of something better? Did it really have to be a character being stupid to get the plot rolling? And then they had to turn the ship, and that rotating antenna or whatever it was got burned away, which in turn caused a huge explosion. Could they seriously not stop the damn thing from rotating? And then I believe they lost a repair guy because the ship automatically returned to its original orientation?

Though there were lots of psychological twitches developing over the long voyage causing not so smart in light of their mission character conflict.

Exactly. They are the last hope of mankind, they are professional astronauts. And then they all got into this childish behavior. Geez, seriously, man the fuck up. Such a team would never be sent on such a mission.

But well, I'm in general tired of this plot device. Characters sent on important missions always have conflicts and end up killing each other. Had Hollywood made up Apollo 13, everyone would have died.

 

[Deckerd]

Sunshine was a truly excellent, thought-provoking movie for the first half. Then it turned to shit. Pandorum was atmospheric and spooky. Then it turned to shit. Event Horizon turned to shit in the opening minutes and although it rallied for a while it was destined to be shit. Sphere I can't remember so it was unmemorable. Supernova was okay. Then it turned to shit. Have I missed anything? I'm really just reiterating what I said before so I'll shut up now.

Except to say that if you want to know what a first class sci fi horror looks like, you should try to get hold of a film called Alien.

 

[Starkers]

The trouble with Sunshine is that it doesn't have an original bone in its body. It starts off trying to be 2010, then becomes Event Horizon (for reasons that escape me) then tries to be 2001. It's lovely, and one of the better made films of its type, but it's one hell of a magpie of a film.

I have an unhealthy love for Event Horizon, fantastic setting (though what kind of crazy fool would build a spaceship to look like Notre Dame?) and it's clear to see it would have been even better if Anderson had had the time and backing to do it properly.

Supernova I recall being really bad!

 

[Ganja Tea]

I loved Pandorum. Watched it on a friends hd projector at his house and got super high before it started so the first 45 minutes had me bugging out. Love the whole atmosphere of that movie. I fucking hate tight and enclosed spaces, if it were me on that ship I'd be suffering from Pandorum in a matter hours.