Author: Darren Goodhart

Taken at face value, The Fourth Kind reports to be about a series of incidents that lead to the idea of alien abduction located around the Nome, Alaska area. A Nome psychiatrist, Dr. Abigail Tyler has found that some of her patients have some commonalities in their lack of sleep and the strange things that they experience through that, and further, before this, her husband had been mysteriously murdered and is now effectively a cold case. Her husband, also a psychiatrist, had been looking into the same matters, that Abigail now continues. This is all told, or rather sold, to you in a manner that basically purports it all to be real and the proof being the use of actual video footage and recordings conducted by Abigail Tyler. this even goes a step further, when at the start of the movie, actress Milla Jovovich steps in front and center, tells you she’s actress Milla Jovovich playing this character with everything else all around it being real…

Now you know what, I could really give a damn if it’s real or not, I knew a little about this going in to see it, but it was very little. Had this really and truly been totally based on “real” events, with “real” audio tapes and video tapes to support what it’s telling you, then wow… it’s an amazing story. If it’s all been cocked-up to sell an entertainment experience, that’s fine too, it’s not the first time something like this has been done in movies and undoubtedly it won’t be the last, what will matter is if you have a good time with it while it’s there, and I did. And for the record, it is all cocked up, just based around a series of disappearances that had happened in Nome throughout a period of time as it’s starting point.

Lots of comparisons have been made with movies like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project though probably a more apt movie to compare it to would be a little seen film called The Last Broadcast which does what this movie does, intermixes it’s “real” audio and footage with filmed stuff that fills in the blanks. This goes a step further, employing lots of split screen tactics with both on-screen at once, the director, Olatunde Osunsanmi being on-screen and conducting his interview with the “real” Abigail Tyler and even pointing out to you through on-screen credits when an actor is portraying a “real” character- not just with Jovovich, but also with Elias Koteas, Will Patton and Hakeem Kae-Kazim, all playing characters that further support the “facts” of this situation.

The Fourth KInd is pretty slow-paced starting off, and then moves into it’s own brand of overdrive about 60% of the way through with a couple of different jump moments. There’s certainly conviction from all of it’s principals, in particularly Jovovich and Patton, and that certainly furthers the salesmanship and basically I found this to be an overall entertaining experience, a nice diversion for a little over 90 minutes. If it matters to you about the “reality” of the situation, then I’d probably say that it’s best to not even bother. I like movies with gimmicks though and this one is about as gimmicked-up as it can get and though it may not be the absolute best as one of these films that blurs the line, I thought it was entertaining and certainly worth a look, if not in the theatre then on home video later, that is as long as you’re willing to be taken for a ride…

Sometimes, I gotta wonder what it’s like to hang out with director Roland Emmerich, especially when he’s planning the destruction of either American or religious icons in some of his big budget blockbusters, like Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow or currently in the new movie, 2012. I mean is there a childish glee, of a social/political motivation or does he just think it looks plain cool? I don’t know.

Maybe it’s all of the above, only Emmerich knows for sure… but it’s all on display in 2012.

2012 uses the ancient Mayan prophecy of the expiration of the Earth as it’s core. In 2009, an Indian scientist discovers that scientific pieces are falling together that precipitate a global cataclysm that will reach it’s zenith in the year 2012. He warns a US colleague, a lower level White House scientific consultant named Adrian Helmsley, and from there a process begins to preserve our current culture in the world that will come after this happens. As 2012 comes we primarily see what happens through the eyes of Helmsley and an American would-be writer and divorced father struggling to support his family named Jackson Curtis. Curtis discovers more of what’s happening on his own, as he’s taking his kids on a weekend getaway to Yellowstone National Park and comes into contact with Charlie, the broadcaster of a pirate radio station that has put all the pieces together and is there to see what’s about to happen. Once the destruction starts, it’s a race against time for all the principals to get to their goal, which is whatever means that has been designed to preserve what will be left of humanity in the end.

Pretty heady stuff, especially as its all being packaged as your literal big-ass popcorn movie, the result of which, I thought was an overall enjoyable mixed bag. There’s obviously a plethora of spectacular visual effects here, sometimes too many for the film’s own good, there’s a few holes here and there, some good characters, some weak characters, some absolute groaner moments and even in the midst of all of the popcorn action, a few moments of genuine poignancy that unfortunately gets swallowed up more by the spectacle of it all.

It’s obvious that Emmerich loves his big scenes of mass destruction, and visually they do look spectacular, though the action that they’re placed on sometimes feels more detached than anything else. There’s a couple of big scenes in particular which are these escape-by-the-edge-of-your-seat scenes, that happen a little too close together and a little too conveniently- showing reaction shots of Jackson Curtis and his family while all of this mass destruction is going on that sort of left me a little detached from the immediacy of it all. I know that sounds a little odd, but while your focused on this one group of people, there are literally thousands being killed in the scenes in the process, with just the idea that they’re cannon fodder for the big effect. Now I know you can’t necessarily get into everyone’s situation in something like this, even in a 2 hour and 40 minute movie, but still the end result, as it’s handled here, feels more like a Universal Pictures thrill ride rather than something that has real life and death at stake- again, I understand that, but considering a few of the other ideas at work here, some of this just isn’t as genuine as it could be.

Most of those bigger ideas come into the back third of the film, once the destruction has started and the process begins to find what will be the salvation at the end. And there is indeed a plan there, that had it’s own process at work. One of the things that’s tossed off as a throwaway line is that people were selected for this based on a computer program that found those that were most apt to contribute and rebuild. The line is just tossed out, but it would’ve actually been cool to have seen that at work here- this event being kept secret from the mass population until it was already upon us, but yet several hundred thousand were selected for this salvation, what happens there? We do see that of sorts through one person, but that person wasn’t part of the selection, instead he was one who buys his way in, literally helping to fund this big project, but I think it would’ve been cool to have seen this from someone else’s POV. Another point happens when the end events are really accelerated into happening and all of a sudden, thousands are facing the possibility of not getting in on this salvation. Helmsley pleads the case that every effort must be done to save the people that at that moment can’t be saved, with all of the world leaders going along with it, except for the man who is currently in charge of the Americans, who is not the President (our President here is played by Danny Glover, and seeing how the winds of politics blow for Emmerich, this President is displayed in a very sympathetic way and makes the ultimate sacrifice in helping his fellow Americans). This character, Helmsley’s boss, played by Oliver Platt, makes what should be the all too real pragmatic arguments in not taking the time to save all of these people and of course, he could just as well be Snidely Whiplash at that point, serving as the “evil” American for the movie. But further… as the carnage around that scene starts, and human lives are threatened, all attention is turned to a small dog who does manage to get to it’s owner in the end, giving this scene it’s biggest groaner moment…

Now I know this probably sounds like I’m going to trash this in the end, and yet I can’t, I do think it’s worth seeing, especially on a big screen. At 2 hours and 40 minutes, I thought this moved very quickly and that’s always a plus for something like this. And it does have it’s genuine good moments, but further it just spurred some great conversation at the end, whether it came at the expense of some of the weaker parts or through some of it’s good ideas, and certainly presents some food for thought, but I won’t guarantee that it will work for everyone in the same way.

The film’s lead characters of Helmsley and Curtis are played by Chiwetel Ejifor and John Cusack. Ejifor, for my money, is one of the best actors working today and he does a good job here, though a scene could be added when he reaches his epiphany near the film’s end, basically telling you how he got there. As the film started, I thought Cusack’s character was going to be more of the one-note smart-assed variety, but he grew on me as the film went on, and even though this film won’t be at the top of anyone’s list for how good he can be, I still think he’s solid here.

Reportedly, Emmerich wants to continue this story on television and go further into what has to happen to rebuild a new world from all of this. I kind of hope he gets his chance, but at the same time, can it be handled in such a way in which the gravity of the situation can be preserved? Well, it probably can, but would viewers necessarily want that? These days, I figure the answer to that is “no” especially on the scale that this is built on, and if one was to truly go into what it would take to rebuild a society after this, I’d expect that we’d see a lot of messageboard responses of being consistently bored week to week (just based already on things that I’m seeing around for new TV shows like FlashForward and V and the already canceled Dollhouse), but I digress…

In the end, though I give it it’s lumps, I do think 2012 is worth seeing, but I expect I’m probably going to be a minority on this one…

Director Richard Kelly loves to play around in the science fiction genre, and he really likes to get strange with it- with his first movie, Donnie Darko he put something out there on the screen that no one had really seen the likes of before, and it met with cult success. With his second movie, Southland Tales he got really ambitious, going way larger in scale, with a bigger cast and really big ideas, and it met with derision at the theatres (I liked it quite a bit my own self though), Now his third film is here, The Box and it’s easily his most accessible film to date, and at the same time, he manages to twist up the genre a bit, though this one has qualities that are much more classic.

It’s 1976 and the place is Richmond, Virginia. Arthur and Norma Lewis are a nice couple, he’s an engineer with NASA working on the Mars probe program and she’s a school teacher and they live an ordinary life with their young son Walter. There are struggles though, they live paycheck to paycheck and they further deal with a deformity of her foot that Norma suffered in her youth, but still this family gets by. One morning a mysterious figure by the name of Arlington Steward leaves a box at their doorstep, with instructions that he will come back to see them the next day with instructions for the contents of the box. The box contains another box, with a button on top of it and they are told that if they push the button on the box, a person that they do not know will die and further they will receive one million dollars tax free to do with what they will.

And that’s the starting premise of The Box, which is freely adapted from a Twilight Zone story that Richard Matheson wrote called “Button, Button.” Though Richard Kelly uses that as a pure springboard, for something even larger, building his own mythology for this with all sorts of twists and turns that come later- but further and most importantly, they all fit together and make for some extremely smart science fiction and at least in my opinion, Kelly’s best movie to date.

His setting is 1976, and he’s chosen to make the movie in such a way that it’s reflective of the period, though he certainly does use the benefits of today’s technology in telling that story, it’s nothing that’s too overt, so you’re not seeing massive amounts of CGI in place, no this is far quieter than that, but still very effective.

His story is very well layered, and touches on all sorts of areas, and while it’s strong in it’s sci-fi elements, it’s not at the expense of his human elements, in other words, you do give a damn about Arthur and Norma and of course that’s always welcome. I’ve already read complaints of the movie’s slow-pacing, and personally, I think it works here, events unfold naturally and not at all forced, but I think you have to be willing to let a movie do that to enjoy it- if you just want this to hit the high points all the time, then this won’t be for you.

While watching this, I was put in the mind of another science fiction film from earlier in the year, Alex Proyas’ Knowing with Nicolas Cage, both deal with some classic sci-fi elements and put their own twists to it, and at leas tin my mind, rather successfully.

Kelly’s cast is really strong here- James Marsden and Cameron Diaz are cast as Arthur and Norma and they are both just really great. I get more impressed with Marsden in everything I see him in and this might just be one of the most vulnerable parts I’ve seen Diaz play to date (and she still looks fantastic). Most importantly, they do have a solid chemistry together, which certainly pays off in the film’s climax. Frank Langella plays the mysterious Arlington Steward and he does a fine job here, though his role is to be somewhat cold and detached in what he’s doing, there’s still a subtle charm to him, and yet with this underplaying, he’s very much a presence in the film.

My expectations for this were relatively low when I went to see it, though I do have a fascination for Richard Kelly’s work, but still, this was the first of his movies that was getting a wide theatrical release and so the expectations are there somewhat that it’s final product might be a little diluted. While it is easily his most accessible movie to date, it’s not at the expense of elements that have been in his other movies- being a hard core science fiction element and multi-layered writing, they’re both still evident here, so I expect the biggest thing that’s changed is Kelly’s maturity as a filmmaker, and if The Box is an example of things to come from Kelly, then I can’t wait to see what he has in store for his future projects. The Box is highly recommended and if you don’t see it in theatres, at least manage it on DVD down the road.

A young Ann Arbor, Michigan journalist named Bob Wilton is going through a bit of a crisis of self- his wife has ran off with his editor and he finds himself really going nowhere where he’s at, and at the start of this story, he’s been introduced to man who is a psychic and has revealed to him a story about the army trying to create a group of super soldiers using psychic abilities. In a fit of wanting to prove himself, Bob leaves the safe confines of his home and decides to go to Iraq to cover the war (this takes place between 2003 and 2004) and while there he meets with Lyn Cassady, a man mentioned in his earlier report, who reveals to Bob that he’s there for a secret mission and so Bob tags along with him, hoping to find out the true story of this super soldier program, called the New Earth Army

That’s the basic premise to The Men Who Stare At Goats from director Grant Heslov (better known as an actor and one of George Clooney’s close pals), and this is the case where you have a movie that has an absolutely terrific trailer that works for it, but unfortunately comes up way short in the end, though there are some bright spots along the way.

One of those big bright spots is the extremely high-powered cast that this has going for it- George Clooney as Lyn Cassaday, Ewan MacGregor as Bob Wilton, Jeff Bridges as Bill Django, the man who starts the New Earth Army and Kevin Spacey as Larry Hooper, a failed sci-fi writer with his own abilities and his own ideas of what the psychic soldier program should be about. And in the background, you’ve got some notable guys like Stephen Lang, Robert Patrick and character guys like Stephen Root and Glenn Morshower. The main cast actually does a nice job with what they have, in particular Clooney, who is absolutely doing his level best to sell this, but it still comes up short.

From it’s title and it’s casting, it seems to me that Heslov is trying to make a Coen Brothers movie in the worst way, yet never quite goes far enough. There’s a jumble of “messages” in the film with none of them ever quite coming through and a lackadaisical pacing that makes this very short movie (around 90 minutes) seem way longer than what it is. There are some bright spots along the way, in particular flashback sequences showing the origins of the New Earth Army, and some great ironic dialogue between MacGregor and Clooney near the start, where Cassaday refers to these soldiers as real life Jedi Knights and explaining to MacGregor abut that concept, with MacGregor not knowing anything of what he’s talking about (the irony of course being that MacGregor has played one of the greatest of the Jedi Knights, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in the Star Wars movies).

But these bright moments come to little and not often enough, and where Heslov fails is in making something that strives to be more cute than cutting, and had this been a Coen Brothers film, it probably would’ve been plenty cutting. It plays it all pretty incredulously until it’s very end, and really what this should’ve had you wondering all along is that this whole thing very well could be true (stating at the start that most of the movie does have it’s basis in truth) and instead your left with a few really nice sequences, a few good laughs, but not enough to really make for something that was satisfying (at least to me) in the end.

As a husband and wife are making love, their small child crawls to the window sill and plummets to his death, and the wife sees all of this, but is too engaged in her “rapture” so to speak to do anything about it. She suffers tremendous guilt over this and her husband, a therapist, seeks to cure her of her guilt, though he already knows this may be wrong, but he wants her to put herself into a situation that would leave her at her most vulnerable, forcing her to confront her fears, and thus move past this… only that’s not quite what happens…

This is what physically seems to be the premise of Lars von Trier’s latest movie, Antichrist, which of course made big news in Cannes for the extreme reaction that it was met with by critics. Now I’m a big fan of von Trier’s, I think the guy is a brilliant filmmaker (he thinks so too and won’t hesitate to let you know it) and though I may not necessarily agree with his worldview on things, I most certainly admire the fact that he puts it out there, totally un-compromised, and leaves it in the minds of his audience to ponder over after the fact.

This deals extremely with the nature of man and woman, religion, misogyny, witchcraft (as a means of feminine control), genital mutilation and more and totally does it in a way that screams pure art house at the audience. von Trier is known for being a cinematic provocateur, and he’s certainly at that with Antichrist pretty much taking a sledgehammer over your head pounding in his own ideas, and of course wanting it’s audience to bring something to the table as well.

There is a sense of impending dread that permeates the entire movie, starting slow and building to an extreme crescendo of violence, by it’s end. The violent acts are gut-wrenching and very hard to watch and in some cases, extremely sexual in nature. I was put in the mind of David Lynch’s Eraserhead through a good portion of this, and I think, that if you’ve seen that movie, then your own reaction to that might be a way to gauge what your reaction to Antichrist would be.

On a technical level, this is amazingly well done, and nothing less should be expected from von Trier, as almost all of his films display an amazing technical proficiency. I found it interesting that in his end credits, there credits given to researchers for both misogyny and horror films, which of course just makes me curious to the inner workings of how this all came together.

Antichrist stars Willem Dafoe and French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg and with the exception of their young child, they’re pretty much entirely who were dealing with this entire film. And it’s extremely brave performances from both, in particular Gainsbourg, who’s asked to do some things on-screen that I don’t think you’d ever see too many American actresses willing to even think about. let alone perform them on-screen. Dafoe has previously worked with von Trier on Manderlay and supposedly had such a good rapport with the director that he sought out a new project with him, well he certainly got something way more demanding here and fortunately Dafoe is up to the task, but then he’s never been one to shy away from anything controversial either.

As I said at the start, I’m a big fan of Lars von Trier, and pretty much look at seeing a new movie from him in about the same way that I used to with the films of Stanley Kubrick or currently do with the films of David Lynch, which is of course for me, a special event. Antichrist didn’t disappoint me in that regard and left me with much to ponder over after the fact. I’ve seen some say that they wouldn’t necessarily want to experience this one again, but of course I’m looking forward to eventually owning this one and pouring through it often. Supposedly, von Trier’s next project will be a science fiction movie, and of course I can’t wait to see it, but hope eventually he returns to make Wasington the third part of his trilogy started with Dogville and Manderlay. I can only recommend this to the most adventurous viewers out there, those willing to put up with some most certain pretentiousness (always present in von Trier movies, and I don’t see that as a negative) and willing to bring something to the table as they’re watching it… all others, need not apply…

In 2006, a young couple, Micah and Katie started to live together. She’s a student who’s studying to be a teacher and he’s a day-trader and as Paranormal Activity is starting, they’re starting to conduct their own experiment with a video camera set-up. Now that Katie has moved in with Micah, she’s revealed to him that since here childhood, she’s suffered from mysterious events that seem to haunt her at night, and now, Micah, wanting to get some proof of this, decides to use a video camera to record themselves throughout the day and especially during the night as they’re sleeping. This experiment follows the couple through 3 terrifying weeks in their lives… building to a conclusion that neither ever expected…

And that’s the basic premise to Paranormal Activity the latest “little movie that could” that’s been gaining ground through a very successful viral campaign that’s not unlike what happened with The Blair Witch Project years ago. Costing under $20,000 to make, this tells an extremely effective story, that at least for me ranks as one of the best things I’ve seen this year. If you want to see a good ol’ creepout, this is the movie to see delivering a tale of demonic possession that’s about as effective as The Exorcist was years and years ago.

From what I’ve seen, this, much like Blair Witch is pretty polarizing, with people either declaring that it’s just terrific or else that it’s the worst low budget, poorly acted piece that can be foisted on the public to which I think they miss the point but to each their own I guess… I know I had a terrific time with this and even now am wondering how some of this stuff was pulled off with such a low budget…

I like these movies that are filmed with a video camera, and I really like the turn this one takes to not be theatrical in the slightest, which in this case includes no title or end credits, purely just letting it’s video-filmed events unfold and primarily letting it’s two main characters tell the story. One of the cooler things to me was a regular device used in this, which was the stationary mounting of the camera in the couple’s bedroom at night- yeah, this does let you know ahead that something is about to happen, but what- you don’t know and as the movie goes, it builds and builds…

And a primary reason for that building, comes from the relationship of Micah and Katie, which certainly seems real to me, the sort of behavior a young couple like this might have with events like this unfolding- something she’s lived with and something that he in turn feels the need to provoke. Actors Micah Sloat and Katie Featherstone play the self-titled couple and they’re really good and I have to give kudos to director Oren Peli for casting someone like Featherstone here, who’s body type doesn’t necessarily fit with what might be the norm for other more Hollywood productions.

I didn’t think I was going to get the opportunity to see this in theatres, but fortunately I had that opportunity, and I’m glad I did. We had a pretty good audience for this and they reacted just the way that you might’ve seen in the television previews for this, but not at all obscuring the action of the film (which wasn’t the case when I saw Quarantine). It’s a solid good time and really well made considering the cost of the film, and highly recommended, especially if you’re willing to give in to something made this way…

The Jigsaw killer is still out there, with Detective Hoffman carrying out more of the final wishes of John Kramer, this time against a health insurance giant who refused Kramer on the specialized cancer treatment that he wanted to get so long ago, all the while with Hoffman now having to dodge the FBI further in their investigation of Jigsaw and also deal with Jill Tuck, Kramer’s girlfriend…

If that sounds confusing to you, well, then obviously you don’t follow the Saw franchise, now in it’s sixth iteration with the appropriately titled Saw VI, which continues to build on everything from the previous five movies and further sets things up for a seventh, much to the dismay of everyone who likes to label the series as “torture porn.” But not to mine… I love this series and look forward to every October when a new installment hits.

As I’ve said in previous reviews of the other movies, this continues to build this epic horror storyline, adding details, that fit right in to previous movies as well as setting things up further, complete with it’s grisly thrills and always with a twist thrown in by it’s end, this time with a couple that further advance this story, and here at least to me, this seems to be building to something that I could see finally concluding this in maybe another couple of installments. Do some things border on the ridiculous? Sure, but then I tend to think everything does eventually in long running series with some sort of continuity.

But as with other reviews in this series, this is purely recommended for fans of the series and not for anyone else, unless you’re a fan of extreme horror, and have never touched the series or haven’t ventured further than the first one, and then I say give them all a shot.

Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell are all back for this (yes, flashbacks galore) and all with good stuff that again, fits right in to everything. Mandylor in particular is impressive to me here, simply because he isn’t nearly as clever at this as what John Kramer (Tobin Bell) was, and as this storyline builds, he leaves many seams showing which Kramer wouldn’t have and which wisely the storyline picks up on.

It’s quickly paced, very inventive still in it’s deathtrap “games,” and again, I just think pure fun for the fans of the series, all else need not bother, unless of course you fit the criteria that I mentioned above…

Astro Boy from IMAGI and director David Bowers is the latest take on Osamu Tezuka’s classic character and it’s first time out as an all computer animated feature. The basic origin for the character is that brilliant scientist Dr. Tenma loses his son Toby in a tragic accident, and using his skills in robotics, re-makes his son as the world’s most perfect robot, only still to reject him in the end, but the little robot still manages to find his place in the world, thanks to other friends. Tezuka produced thousands of pages of material around the character and there’s been three prior animated series (all worth seeking out) and it’s just fun stuff, primarily made for the younger reader/viewer in mind, but still appealing to this older one as well.

This new movie takes a lot of liberties with the details of Tezuka’s original, obviously with the idea in mind to make it more palatable to an audience today (and one would figure also to remove some of the cruelty inflicted on the character in those early stories) and while I don’t think all of these choices were necessary, in the end, I do think it’s basically in the same spirit as what Tezuka has done. Will that still make it something that people and their children in particular will want to see? Well, that’s pretty hard to say, especially considering that this character has been out of the limelight for quite awhile.

Before seeing this though, I’ve actually been reading some of Tezuka’s original stories and have been watching some of the cartoons from both 1980 and 2003. While I don’t consider myself an expert on the character by any means, I still managed to see a lot of similarities in this new production with what’s been done before and on top of that, I just plain like all of this stuff and really like the sense of wonder about it all. But for some who are really familiar with this, well, it’s kind of hard for me to say how they might take some of the more drastic changes (particularly around the setting, around Dr. Tenma, who gets a major overhaul here, and Astro’s overall “age”).

The animation is really nice and though it’s inevitably going to be compared to the gold standard (i.e. Pixar), I think what IMAGI has done here is quite well done with some real nice set pieces and some nice subtleties here and there.

There’s a pretty stellar voice cast at work here too, headed up by Freddie Highmore as Astro and Nicolas Cage as Tenma, and also including Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland and Nathan Lane amongst others, and overall, I think it’s pretty well done, with no real missteps.

I had a real good time with this and hope it does well enough to see more in the future- Tezuka’s got tons and tons of ideas that would make for some great ideas for future installments – but I have my doubts that this will continue, at least in this form. I have no doubts that there will be other versions of the character to come eventually, but will this more Americanized version stand the test, it’s hard to say…

Nearly 150 years in the future, Earth’s resources are at this point virtually wiped out, with the planet on the brink of total collapse. But hope for the survival of the human race has been found with the discovery of Tanis, a far distant planet that’s very similar to Earth in terms of atmosphere, water and plant life. The people of Earth have launched the immense spaceship, Elysium, with a population of thousands immersed in a cryogenic sleep, along with everything needed to turn Tanis into a new Earth. Now, mysteriously, two of Elysium’s flight crew, Bower and Payton, have been awoken from their sleep to find that something has gone wrong on their ship, with both having to deal with memory loss from such a long sleep and the possibility of a type of space madness called Pandorum…

And that’s the premise of Pandorum a new German-financed science fiction movie, starring American actors Ben Foster as Bower and Dennis Quaid as Payton. And while it’s cool to have this sort of science fiction out there, it’s just a shame that the final product is something that’s a s muddled as this is. Pandorum basically suffers from putting too damn much into, which in the end dilutes it’s final twist to the point that it’s impact isn’t really anything that’s too special.

The biggest problem, at least in my mind, is the element that’s the source of the title, Pandorum itself. Basically using the idea that nearly everyone who’s awaken from this hypersleep might have fallen victim to this (and there’s more than just Bower and Payton), makes all of the characters come off a s just a little too crazy in some areas and thus makes it harder for an audience to get too invested in those characters. Oh, attempts are made, specifically with Bower, but those seem to get lost with everything else that the filmmakers have occurring on this ship.

Had this been pared down with a tighter rooting interest in it’s human characters, and then of course probably retitled, I think it would’ve had the chance at being something special on a smaller scale, but as it is, it suffers from throwing too many twists to the viewer in the illusion of making this story more complex than it needs to be, and as I said above, because of that, the final twist of the film, which should be the actual “big deal” here, is heavily diluted.

It also doesn’t help that this is shot extremely dark and edited with many quick cuts in some areas, making it a little harder to get a grasp of place on the Elysium. Action scenes are shot way too close and again with an abundance of quick cuts (probably used to hide seams) making them more indecipherable than anything else.

I think Quaid and Foster are just fine here, Foster in particular, though as I said, they don’t give you much of a chance to really root for them and much give a damn by it’s end. There are other survivors on-board the Elysium, but they’re created as more cyphers than anything else, and there’s nothing that any of them are really given that makes you really care in the end.

It’s a shame, I was looking forward to this, because I like this sort of science fiction movie quite a bit. But in the end, there’s just too much thrown at you here that takes away what should’ve been more of a tighter focus in it’s main plot. and as such, it’s really hard to give a damn about Pandorum in the end…