PANDORUM
So its time for the Kiza capsule review... This week, it's PANDORUM. From all the advertising, it looked like kind of a lame Jason X, AVP2, Event Horizon, Paul W. S. Anderson style shitfest. The production design looked good though.. and sci-fi has been shunned by holywood as of late, with no new sci fi offerings at all the last few years (Sunshine aside... Star Trek is not new at all... despite the fact that it was good.)
Plot summary: This movie is "System Shock the movie". The tried and tested, guy wakes up and everything has gone to Hades. Beasties running about etc. What the advertising promises... you get.
The good:
Production design is OUTSTANDING. I like it alot. It borrows from the greats that came before it, but overall, very nice. There's a sequence in the credits that pans about the different parts of the ship, showing the nice details in each set. Thumbs up for this. I might buy the DVD if they include director's commentary or a set featurette.
I found the pacing to be good - they doled out pieces of the plot at a reasonable pace. They did not insert any extra sub-plots into the plot that were not central to the main story. This is very good. They also largely ignore all technological aspects not related to the main plot. I wish more screen plays used this formula where extraneous crap doesn't get tacked on. Dennis Quaid is in it. Thank god he gave a reasonably good "non-stock Quaid" performance, unlike his "phoning it in" in GI Joe. Even the survival of the main characters vs the beasties is somewhat plausible, as none of them know exactly how long they have been "surviving".
The bad: There is bad of course... hard to explain it without ruining the plot - though again, the lack of distinction between the main characters can be attributed to the human condition under extreme pressure.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised - IN SPITE of Paul WS Anderson being involved with this title. I will give this 4 sporks in Paul WS Anderson's eye socket out of five.
Prolly going to see Surrogates with Day next week... hope it is at least as good... (Looks like the critics are skewering it pretty bad though..!)
Plot summary: This movie is "System Shock the movie". The tried and tested, guy wakes up and everything has gone to Hades. Beasties running about etc. What the advertising promises... you get.
The good:
Production design is OUTSTANDING. I like it alot. It borrows from the greats that came before it, but overall, very nice. There's a sequence in the credits that pans about the different parts of the ship, showing the nice details in each set. Thumbs up for this. I might buy the DVD if they include director's commentary or a set featurette.
I found the pacing to be good - they doled out pieces of the plot at a reasonable pace. They did not insert any extra sub-plots into the plot that were not central to the main story. This is very good. They also largely ignore all technological aspects not related to the main plot. I wish more screen plays used this formula where extraneous crap doesn't get tacked on. Dennis Quaid is in it. Thank god he gave a reasonably good "non-stock Quaid" performance, unlike his "phoning it in" in GI Joe. Even the survival of the main characters vs the beasties is somewhat plausible, as none of them know exactly how long they have been "surviving".
The bad: There is bad of course... hard to explain it without ruining the plot - though again, the lack of distinction between the main characters can be attributed to the human condition under extreme pressure.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised - IN SPITE of Paul WS Anderson being involved with this title. I will give this 4 sporks in Paul WS Anderson's eye socket out of five.
Prolly going to see Surrogates with Day next week... hope it is at least as good... (Looks like the critics are skewering it pretty bad though..!)