Pandorum
Pandorum was released to little fanfare in 2009. I vaguely remember seeing something about this movie around that time, but I never saw it. The movie is about how what was left of humanity took to the stars to find a new home. Since it’s a long trip, most of the crew spends their time in hypersleep. The movie starts when two officers come out of hypersleep to find the ship’s active crew missing. While Officer Payton (Dennis Quaid) stays behind on the bridge, Officer Bower (Ben Foster) searches the ship for the crew and any other signs of life. Bower finds a lot more than he expected since cannibalistic creatures have taken root. Unfortunately, that’s the least of his problems since there’s this little space disorder called Pandorum that can make most men go mad.
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| So, this is what happened to Faora in the Phantom Zone! Yeah, that's Faora there! |
I didn’t know what to expect with this one. While the ratings say otherwise, a lotta folk like this movie, and I can see why. It’s pretty bare-bones with the plot, but a lot of things do work here. The atmosphere of this derelict ship is good. The interior is pretty creepy. The creatures, or “The Hunters” look pretty scary. You don’t learn too much about them at first, but you get the idea that something happened to some of the humans on board. The cast was fine for the most part. Ben Foster, Antje Traue, and Dennis Quaid do a good job here.
I don’t have too many qualms about this one. The movie’s
story isn’t the strongest out there. It does take a long while for us to get
what’s truly going on. I don’t mind a slow pace, but it’s a bit much here. While
the action can be a bit fun, there were too many fast cuts for me. It’s weird
since we had martial artist, Cung Le, around pulling some stunts. Also, while I
do like the atmosphere, it could’ve helped if we had a little more light. Just
because it’s dark in tone doesn’t mean that I need to have a flashlight to see
what’s going on. Overall, while it has its issues, this was a fine one.
The Batman vs Dracula
This was a straight-to-video movie that was released in 2005 while The Batman was in its third season, I believe. I actually saw this at Hollywood Video back in college and checked it out. In the movie, the Penguin tries to look for a treasure in Gotham’s cemetery. What he finds instead is the corpse of Dracula, and he incidentally resurrects him. Dracula then begins to cause havoc around the city by biting and turning victums into vampires. Dracula also takes a liking of Vikki Vale, a lady who Bruce Wayne is also interested in. Batman does what he can against the horde that somehow includes a vampire version of the Joker.
This was a pretty nice, long episode of The Batman. I just
realized that I haven’t talked about this show at all on here, so I may need to
change that one day. The movie takes Dracula and tries to water him down to
something that 7 year-olds can see. Now, while it is watered down and there’s virtually
no death, the creators try their best to darken it up. The quality is about
similar to the show. The voice acting’s good for the most part. I forgot how
well Rino Romano sounded as the Batman. I also think this is one of the only
places where we see another love interest for Bruce Wayne on the show. The
action’s top notch as usual, though I laugh at how adept at fighting most of
Batman villains like Penguin and the Joker were on this show.
I don’t have too many dislikes for this feature. The plot
does get a bit predictable. Batman gets blamed for the disappearances at some
point, and that’s a weird moment. That being said, this is during his early
days where he was more of a unknown figure being chased by the police. As I said
above, it is trying to gear Dracula toward a younger audience, so it can’t go
too off the board. Also, things pretty much return to normal at the end of the
movie not too many consequences. Oh yeah, I hate the Penguin in this show, but
I like dreadlocked Joker though. Other than these things, this was nice.
Dark Shadows (TV show)
Why yes, I’m on my Dark Shadows watch. Unfortunately, I think I’ve come to the more soap opera moments. I’ve gotten through episodes 4-6. We end up meeting another Collins family member named Carolyn who’s has issues with her mom. She also has issues with an “young” man she dated (seriously, that dude looked like he was in his 30’s) named Roger. She also had problems with Willie, the grave robber from the first episode. Oh yeah, Willie’s back! I was thinking that Barnabas bit his butt, but I was wrong. We do here of a young calf that got its blood sucked, so I wonder if Willie and Baranbas played into that. As for Barnabas, he’s making himself at home in another house that was owned by his parents.
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| Man, you look old! Trying to talk to some random young blonde! The shame! |
Scanners
Finally, we have a movie that I saw a few months ago. All I know is that Andy wasn’t here just yet. I found it on HBO Max, and since I’ve only seen one of the Scanner movies (Scanners 2, I think), I thought I’d check this one out. The movie was released in 1981 and directed by David Cronenberg. Scanners revolves around Cameron Vale, a homeless man who’s recruited by ConSec to be used. It turns out that Vale is a powerful scanner, and ConSec uses him to fight back against Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside), a another powerful scanner who’s trying to wage war against the company called ConSec. As Vale tries to find out what Revok is up to, he uncovers a conspiracy that may endanger many lives.
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| You know, I'd be making that face too if I saw someone's hair light on fire... |
I think the only thing I knew about this movie was that
Michael Ironside made someone’s head blew up, so I’m glad to see there was more
than that. I thought the movie was interesting. I did think that Revok was an
okay villain for the movie since Michael Ironside does his usual thing. I also liked the doctor who was trying to help Vale control his abilities. The story
is okay for the most part with Vale trying to figure out what Revok’s planning
and stopping him. The way the scanners use their telepathic and telekinetic
abilities is cool. While Vale is our hero, you also wonder if he could go the
way Revok does and abuse his abilities. Also, when the gore comes, it’s pretty
shocking and done well. This is early Cronenberg, which reminds me, is
Videodrome available for streaming?
As for the negatives, I don’t have too many. You don’t
really care about the main lead and a couple of other characters here. I think it mainly has
to do with the fact that some of the acting’s not great. I definitely sensed
that with Stephen Lack, who I found out later was mainly an artist. He just
seems so dull in the role even though the character is interesting. The pacing could
also be a little slow at times. It took a while for it to get moving. Also, it
felt like the ending was a little muddled. Overall, it was still a good time.
…………………………………………
Well, that’s all I got for now. I think I’ll push this
through a few more until Halloween comes. Next time, I may have some more sci-fi horror or more vampires. I'm not sure yet. I do know that one of these things will involve David Bowie. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
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