Movie makers are struggling to to do futuristic monster movies these days, and not have their production come off as an Alien retread. Paul WS Anderson's done it once with Event Horizon, so it's a surprise he come back for seconds (as a producer) with Pandorum. Set in the far future where Earth's natural resources have all but depleted, a giant spaceship is sent on a 126 year voyage to reseed humanity on another habitable planet. Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster are two members of one of the flight crews who awake from hibernation to discover the ship in danger and the mission jepardy.
Once you get past the generic, dark spaceship corridors, Pandorum is less reminisant of Alien than it is of The Descent, The Warriors and even jap-horror A Tale of Two Sisters. Like The Warriors it's bit like a western as the hero (Foster), tries to get through enemy territory to civilization (er, the ships reactor). Meanwhile, awaiting rescue, Quaid has to deal with psychological horror issues.
Both Quaid and Foster are excellent, which can't be said for the wooden supporting cast (Antje Traue does a Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only...beautiful but dead behind the eyes). The script, while offering virtually nothing in the character building department is very well paced and does provide some welcome twists and turns come the finale. Unfortunately director Christian Alvert drops the ball; the movies is suitably glossy but he's pointed the camera at stuff without much consideration for building scares, tension or exciting action. Still, it's not enough to spoil an entertaining sci-fi flick.
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