Pandorum

A long time ago (thirty years to be precise) when the universe was less than half its present size, ITV was on strike so Doctor Who was managing to get ratings near twenty million and disco was all the rage, there came two films which - however directly or indirectly, would come to shape who I became, despite the fact I would not be born for another two years. The first of these, was Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It was made partially as a result to Star Wars and in many ways, paved the way for big budget SF on the big screen, ultimately proving there was still an audience for Star Trek and thusly, paving the way for Star Trek: The Next Generation and the 90's TV SF boom that followed. Yes, we have The Motion Picture to blame for Time Trax. Anyone remember that little gem?

The second of these was the far more 'adult' (although I use that word in a certain context, realting to 'coarse' language and nudity and gooshy bits - the actual plot isn't really any more sophisticated than something you would see on Doctor Who. In fact, The Ark In Space, a story from that shows 1974/75 season bears a great many similarities to this film). I am of course talking about Ridley Scott's first masterpiece, Alien. Up until this point, most SF films were aimed at kids and socially awkward teenagers. But with Alien, a film which merged an SF film with a horror movie, people started to understand that there was an audience out there for adult SF. Of course, it was not exactly a new thing, the B movie culture of the fifties and sixties birthed a great many 'creature features' like The Blob and Them! and The Thing From Another World but Ridley Scott's film took upon the post-Star Wars world and grabbed it by the collar. And then bit its head off. And we're still feeling the aftershocks today. While James Cameron's sequel took the franchise in an entirely new direction (one from which it arguably never recovered - witness the slew of merchandise, including tie in novels and comics which use the Aliens tag, symbolising their allegiance to Cameron's admittedly brilliant sequel), David Fincher's third entry tried to take the franchise back to where it came from and remains one of the greatest and most interesting misfires in cinematic history (see also Blade Runner's original cut and Orson Welles' butchered potential masterwork The Magnificent Ambersons) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's fourth film essentially represented a mixtape of the previous three films with particular emphasis on the second and the two Alien Versus Predator movies are, respectively, a fun monster movie and possibly the worst movie ever made. But Alien still remains influential today, perhaps due to its timelessness (even the effects stand up well now) and the fact that many of the writers and directors working now were of 'that age' when they first saw it. It's the same principle which saw a slew of Spielberg imitators come out of the woodwork in the decade or so following his success with Jaws and Close Encounters.

The most recent evidence of Alien has been Pandorum, a film by German director Christian Alvart, starring the mighty Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, furthering his career as quirky character actor when he could have so easily gone down the romcom/twentysomething route following Kirsten Dunst vehicle Get Over It and Twilight eye candy Cam Gigandet. Eye candy for girls that is, not the boys. But then, isn't everything about Twilight aimed at girls? It's essentially Mills & Boon.

And, given that Paul WS Anderson is listed as a producer in the credits, it's a surprisingly good film. It's certainly much better than the last major Alien spawn, Anderson's own Event Horizon, which has some spectacular set design going for it and little else.

It begins with Ben Foster's character, Bower, waking up from cryogenic sleep, amnesiac and very disorientated. It quickly becomes clear that something has gone wrong and with the help of his commanding officer, played by the effortlessly commanding Dennis Quaid, he sets off on a journey through the ship to disocver what has gone wrong. It soon becomes clear that he's been in suspension a lot long than the eight years he originally thought and a strange anaimalistic race have apparently taken over the ship and are preying on the crew. He meets the prerequisite female member of the cast and reluctantly, they join forces to try and restart the ship's engines.

To say any more about the plot would spoil it. Needless to say, this is one of those films that people should go to blind if possible (not literally blind, although it wouldn't make much difference as Pandorum is a very dark film, both in tone and lighting). The less information you have, the more you will enjoy yourself. If, like me, you spend a lot of time watching films that you know to have a twist (cue Robot Chicken: What a twist!) you'll try and work out what said twist is. I got halfway through The Sixth Sense before I'd done it (it was the fact that Bruce Willis doesn't move his chair when he sits down at dinner with his wife that gave it away). I didn't get the twist with Pandorum though. I was right in a way, but in others I was so completely off beam it was wonderful. It was a great feeling to be so completely wrong-footed by a movie, but to have it all make perfect sense in the end.

4/5