Pandorum

"Holy zombie apocalypse! I wanted to see a hardcore sci-fi movie, and I ended up watching another freaking zombie movie?" Something along these lines was going through my mind halfway through Pandorum.

But oh no, Pandorum is so much more than another zombie flick. Yes, there are zombies in it. Legions of flesh eating, martial arts skilled zombies. They're not called like that of course, but the resemblance to, let's say, the dudes from "I am Legend", is uncanny.

I think the writers knew zombies movies have been done to death and they were ideas hunting: the complete destruction of Planet Earth? Nope, it's been done before. A ship carrying our last hope? Done before. Something about cryogenics? Done before. Space dementia? Done before, and much, much better. Colonising alien worlds? Done before. Erm, spaceship with people crawling on dark corridors with blood smeared all over themselves, running away from some evil monsters? Done, done, done.

Well, then, how about ALL THOSE THINGS PUT TOGETHER?

And so we end up with Pandorum, an amazing mess of a sci-fi/horror movie, that in the end still manages to save itself from, well, itself, by having a few plot twists and a cool ending that I really wasn't expecting.

The plot? Well, as I said, spaceship, mission: last hope of humanity, zombies, space dementia, cool ending.

Rating? 6/10. Could have been much worse.

Planet 51

Ok, so since I set myself the goal to review all of the movies I watch (mostly for myself, to keep track of it), I guess it's only fair to review Planet 51, an animated film (not Pixar though, this one's made by Illion and it's actually their first movie).

Now this movie got pretty bad ratings and even worse reviews. It rips off a lot of stuff from other movies (the robotic probe, Rover, is clearly inspired by Wall-E), the plot is predictable and also has been done before (see Battle for Terra), the humour is either too non-offensive or too offensive, depending on the reviewer.

I, on the other hand, found myself entertained by this movie (and to be honest, that's all I expected from it. If you want something deeper I guess you should look in some other places than an animation about aliens, that targets mostly teenagers).

The movie is filled with cultural references, including the title. I guess it's the only way in which it entertains. So we have there: Area 51 (the name of the planet hints at it, and there is actually a secret underground military base in a desert of the planet), the hippy movement, the UFO community movement, conspiracies surrounding NASA (the robotic probe manages to completely miss the civilisation on Planet 51, due to its obsession for collecting and photographing rocks), sci-fi, fanzines, horror flicks from the 50s, plus many other references to movies like Alien, Terminator, E.T.

About the plot: A superficial, charismatic, incompetent but well-intended American astronaut lands on Planet 51 expecting to find it devoid of life. But the planet is harbouring a civilisation of green and cute people (they also have antennas!) that are in a development stage corresponding to the American 50s. Now the astronaut, with the help of a few locals, must try to escape the local military, who view him as a threat (and also want to experiment on him), and get to his ship in orbit before it leaves without him.

Make what you will of it, but I give it a 6.5/10.

P.S. And I definitely liked it better than Battle for Terra.

Paranormal Activity

Last night I watched Paranormal Activity. After reading good things about it, I had high hopes and also I was sure that it will scare the day light out of me, so I took some precautions: had my boyfriend in the other room ready to intervene if I get too scared, had some cookies, low light, a blanket to put over my head at the very scary parts.

In the good tradition of "Blairwitch Project" and "rec", Paranormal Activity is filmed as a "home made tape" and marketed as a "true story". Unlike Blairwitch Project, it misses the novelty factor. Unlike rec, it misses the action and brilliant acting. So even if overall there were a few creepy scenes, I didn't jump out of the couch, didn't cover my head with the blanket, didn't yell for my boyfriend, and I slept like a child last night.

A little about plot of the movie: Katie and Micah are a young couple living in a suburban house. Recently Katie began to experience again phenomena she had also experienced as a child, and that seems to be caused by a demonic presence. Her boyfriend buys a video camera to document what is happening, and things get progressively worse as the demonic presence manifests itself more and in more violent ways.

I'd say 6/10 for this movie.