What a neat little film. I wonder why I never heard anyone talk about it. I don't even remember it coming to theaters. Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) wakes up from extended hypersleep on the spacecraft Elysium with no memory of who he is or why he is there. The ship's bridge has been sealed off and the only other person in with him is Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid). Payton and Bower must get the ship's reactor back on line or risk losing all life support. Slowly, their memories start coming back and they realize they are on a mission to an Earth-like planet called Tanis and the ship is filled with sleeping colonists. Or at least it was. As Bower tries to negotiate the ship, he realizes that they are not the only ones moving around. Humanoid creatures have booby-trapped some passages, hunting anyone awake and breaking open hypersleep pods to eat the colonists. If that wasn't enough, extended hypersleep has been shown to cause "Pandorum", a psychological breakdown manifesting with hallucinations, paranoia, and psychosis.
If you took Alien and Event Horizon and mixed them together with a sprinkling of the Reavers from Serenity, you would have Pandorum. It has a very small, tight cast that does a fantastic job, especially Cam Gigandet, who might be giving the performance of his career so far. I wish I had seen this before Man of Steel, so I could properly appreciate actress Antje Traue. The whole time I was watching, I was thinking "well, hell yeah, if I'm going to be stuck on a spaceship with everyone trying to kill me I'd want Faora-Ul on my side." That woman is badass. I am really growing to love Ben Foster. I've seen him play a mutant, a soldier, a cowboy, and a killer and he is fantastic at everything.
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