Pandorum - (film review)

            The cross-genre Horror/Sci-Fi is met with varying degrees of success.  Films such as Alien, Aliens, and Sunshine have all managed to successfully transfer the most potent elements of each separate genre creating an aggregate of superior filmmaking.  Pandorum however, cannot be added to this list.

            I wanted to enjoy this film.  The foreboding omniscient overtones in the atmosphere of the space ship made for a wonderfully interesting backdrop through which the themes of repopulation and the survival of life could play out.  The actualization of capitalist struggles to eliminate nature in favour of metallic man-made technology seen at its most extreme is quite the powerful statement.  However, Pandorum has its safety net in Tanis, the equally life-sustaining planet to which the ship’s mission is to find.  The most interesting themes this film raises are quickly snowballed into utter clichéd oblivion once the archetypal (read: racist stereotypes) characters are introduced, one by one: a) the white lieutenant/leader; b) the female mother, who’s natural instincts are to actively protect the last shreds of nature that are being exported from Earth; c) the aboriginal warrior, who does not speak a word of English, thus relegating the substance of his character to a few inaudible words and many grunts and shrieks; d) the black (southern-style) fry-cook, who also turns out to be ‘in-it-for-himself’, thus justifying (supposedly) his criminal behvaiours; e) the heterosexual couple who’s purpose it is to re-populate Tanis and preserve the human race.  It seems in space, and consequently in the future, people are still racist/sexist/heterosexist.

            Unfortunately, the handling of such delicate socio-environmental issues as they are integrated into the plotline are continuously collapsing under the thinness of the overt and convoluted dialogue and action sequences.  I am a big fan of both science fiction and horror films and I believe that the most wonderous of these genre pieces can effectively illuminate some interesting social potentials not always fully considered in the discourse of socio-environmental issues.  So, in experiencing Pandorum I kept trying to suspend my disconcert for such blatant offences as I have listed above.  Perhaps if the raw material in which the director had to work was better written, all would be forgiven?  Alas, I found myself uninterested more than three-quarters of the way in, watching a film that attempted to superficially adopt film tropes from other successful genre films in hopes to capture some of the effectiveness here.

            It seems to me like Christian Alvart and Travis Milloy are the kind of filmmakers that suppose substance can be read into or onto their pretty scenes of beautiful leads, disconcerting supporting stars, and eerily-lit settings.  Unfortunately for them, the success of films such as Alien and The Descent (of which this film is a blatant cross between) is not reliant on these shallow Hollywood-esque predictions on what makes a substantial well-made film.  In other words, Pandorum is fluff disguised as a significant allegorical cautionary tale of environmental and social catastrophe.
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Grade: 69% (C+)