Pandorum

The action and pseudo-psychological sci-fi flick Pandorum suffers in the hands of over-zealous Malaysian censors: with frequent and jarring cuts, watching it in the cinema is liable to cause epileptic fits. It also makes an incoherent film even more confusing.

This is the plot, from what I could make of it: soldier Bower (Ben Foster) wakes up from hyper-sleep, with no clue on how he got there. With fellow amnesiac Payton (Dennis Quaid), he discovers that he is aboard the abandoned colony ship Elysium: your standard space-born derelict, filled with flesh-eating mutants.

Crazed maniacs also abound - these suffer from (the comically named) "pandorum", an illness that manifests as paranoia, hallucinations, and homicidal rage. Meanwhile, the fate of the human race hangs in the balance. What else is new?

Dennis Quaid, taking off his usual macho-man persona, is decent as the Janus-faced Payton - eventually revealed as the evil psycho who masterminded this interstellar disaster. However, with Quaid as a scheming coward, the heavy action is left to Ben Foster, an actor - best known for supporting roles in Alpha Dogs and 3:10 to Yuma - woefully underequipped for his role. The bulk of the action-hero-ing is left to Cung Lee (Tekken, Fighting) and sexy newcomer Antje Traue.

Director Christian Alvart Cast Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Antje Traue Runtime 108 mins

Text Angelene Tang