Space, with all its infinite vastness has long had an appeal for Movie Makers seeking a setting for a Thrill fest. There can be no doubt that for all Modern Sciences developments, Space remains the great unknown, the final frontier.

So Space as a setting for a movie allows a cerebral director the opportunity not only to create shocks and thrills; but also to make some sort of comment on the Human condition. Movies such as Kubrick’s seminal Space Odyssey 2001 and to a lesser extent the 1997 sleeper hit Event Horizon achieved this potent combination.

Pandorum, directed by Christian Alvart would like to think that it belongs in that category. In my opinion it falls short on both fronts. Comparisons to Event Horizon are inevitable, as Pandorum is produced by the team of Paul W.S Anderson and Jeremy Bolt who were at the helm for Event Horizon.

However, whilst Alvart and company attempt to ratchet up the tension and sense of claustrophobia that made Event Horizon such a seat of your pants movie going experience, somehow Pandorum left me feeling flat.

There can be no doubt that there has been some money spent on Pandorum. This is apparent from the epic introductory scene, where we are told that the year is 2174 and the human race is battling against a resource shortage. This forces us to branch out further into the vastness of space, and against this backdrop, Alvart gloriously pans in to the CGI crafted Spaceship Elysium, which becomes the fulcrum of the movie.

It will become apparent that the good ship Elysium, harbours a terrifying reality. A reality, we first encounter through the eyes of Corporal Bower. Bower is portrayed with energy by Ben Foster- who is the first to wake up from a self imposed stasis, and is left reeling with no recollection of how he came to be on board and suffering from total amnesia. What he does have (luckily) is a latent perception of the Engineering skills for which he was recruited. He quickly gains an appreciation that the Elysium is heading for a total breakdown. After a few minutes of frantic scrambling he realizes that he is not alone on board.

The next of the crew to awaken from Hyper-sleep is Lieutenant Payton. Payton is played by Dennis Quaid who has matured into a reliable Hollywood star, But in Pandorum Quaid makes the mistake of confusing- speaking in quiet tones and ultimately descending into Pacino-esque shouting- for true character development.

The pair of archetypes, i.e. wily veteran and fresh new recruit, soon discover that a third member of their team is missing from his Hyper-sleep chamber and the airlock door is jammed shut (spooky). This allied to the fact the ship is spiralling out of control, prompts the rugged Payton to suggest to Bower that he guides the younger man through the labyrinth of ventilation ducts so that he can unlock the duct from the outside.

As Bower heroically embarks on this quest, he discovers amongst a litany of dead bodies, a terrifying horror lurking in the bowels of the ship. The Elysium was originally built to host 6,000 humans, many have mutated into blood thirsty Hunters. To their credit, the Production team veer away from Computer Generated Images of this evil force. They choose instead to work extensively with SFX Prosthetic outfits. For me, this lends an authenticity to the movement of the Hunters that CGI imagery simply cannot replicate. However, I could not help but think that they did resemble reject Urukai from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Movies.

As the Movie lurches on at a breakneck pace, Bower is joined on his quest by fellow human survivors, Manh played by four time world Mixed Martial Arts champion, Cung Le and Nadia portrayed by Antje Traue.

Antje Traue, exudes genuine presence and reminds me of a young Milla Jovovich, (expect future success from this comparative new comer to the Big Screen), and Cung Le’s fighting prowess ensure that the action sequences where our heroes battle the Hunters are well- action packed!!

But for me the main failure of Pandourum is in the editing process. Alvart and editor Philip Stahl pan back and forward from the pulsating battle sequences to Payton in the hub. It is Payton who in discourse with the missing member of the crew Gallo, (Cam Gigandet) suffers the full effect of Pandorum.

Pandorum was envisaged by W.S.Anderson as, ‘Cabin Fever on acid’ but here we only have Quaid ranting and flailing, spouting cod Philosophy about the waste the human has made of earth and our unique ability to do more. Essentially, it is this motif that Pandorum would like to showcase but it is lost amidst a flurry of frantic editing. I can only assume that such quick cutting is designed to induce in the audience a sense of the claustrophobia of space and maybe even to allow us a small inkling into the mindset of the Pandorum sufferer. However, for me it was merely headache inducing and it ensured we did not have a chance to develop any real sense of connection with the protagonists. This unfortunately meant when all of the important messages were being delivered, I could not really care less.

For all the spiralling adventures and psychological hurdles that Payton and Bower endure, for all the allusions to a Philosophical warning about the state of the human race, for all the big budget effects- Pandorum, concludes in a flat and clichéd manner.

There is the wiggle room for a sequel, but in all honesty, I hope they don’t bother.

Overall Rating: 2/5.