{"id":516,"date":"2010-01-22T14:01:05","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T18:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/?p=516"},"modified":"2010-01-22T14:01:05","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T18:01:05","slug":"k-i-s-s-keep-it-simple-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=516","title":{"rendered":"K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today marks the release of Legion<\/strong>, which one hopes bodes well for star Dennis Quaid, since he hasn’t has the greatest luck in snagging a plum role in recent sci-fi and horror films.<\/p>\n

2009 had Quaid starring in Horsemen<\/strong>, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra<\/strong>, and Pandorum<\/strong>, and while I haven’t seen Horsemen<\/strong>, I can<\/em> vouch for G.I. Joe<\/strong> being 100 % rabbit rubbish, and proof-positive Stephen Sommers has creatively devolved since his Mummy<\/strong> films. Van Helsing<\/a><\/strong> is a brilliant pulp culture fusion compared to the shrill, garish idiocy that is G.I. Joe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

The four faces of Pandorum<\/p><\/div>\n

Pandorum<\/strong> was marketed using a slick graphics campaign built around the concept of great big tubes of fluids coming outside of an arm, a head\u2019s orifices, and a woman with a mutating head. There was also a design that resembled H.R. Giger\u2019s Alien<\/strong> creature, although those familiar with the film will recognize it\u2019s a carefully lit image of a man emerging from the tube where he\u2019s spent a long period in suspended animation.<\/p>\n

One aspect director and co-writer Christian Alvart (Antibodies<\/strong> \/ Antik\u00f6rper<\/strong>) wanted to demystify was in fact the graceful reawakening of crewmen, as seen in Alien<\/strong> (1979). Alvart\u2019s concept was more invasive, and may be more close to the kind of needs a body requires if it\u2019s to be preserved like a pickle in a jar with juices to keep it alive.<\/p>\n

When the first crewman, Bower, emerges from his tube, his skin is covered in an exo-skin that shriveled and white, and the first order of business it to rip out several large tubes that have been buried in his arm. Much like the ripping out of electrodes at the end of Resident Evil<\/strong> (2002), it\u2019s a nasty moment that makes it clear Pandorum<\/strong> isn\u2019t going to be an elegant foray into phallic mayhem the way Ridley Scott directed Alien<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Of the aforementioned posters, the arm is the closest inference of the film\u2019s tone, whereas the multitude of tubes seemingly slithering though the head makes no sense.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s striking, but what does it mean?<\/p>\n

\"\"

Striking a banshee pose<\/p><\/div>\n

The madwoman is a fusion of two things: the madness of pandorum \u2013 uber-stress from long space travel \u2013 that includes delusions, paranoia, and thoughts of murder; and the form of biologist Nadia (played German hottie Antje Traue).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Strikingly similar, aren't they?<\/p><\/div>\n

The Giger Alien<\/strong> riff is more clever, but again, the art doesn\u2019t address the film\u2019s more visceral villains \u2013 reptillian cannibals \u2013 and it\u2019s symptomatic of the film\u2019s producers (which, coincidentally, include the makers of the Resident Evil<\/strong> franchise) perhaps not being sure as to how Pandorum<\/strong>\u2019s fairly dense story could be distilled into one significant image.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Beware of the green, gooey yolk<\/p><\/div>\n

The cracked egg that appeared in the original Alien<\/strong> campaign inferred the physical and metaphorical birth of blank-faced, primal hunger, an image that was used in Scott\u2019s own trailer, capped with the immortal line \u201cIn space no one can hear you scream.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was mystery, tension, and intrigue; with Pandorum<\/strong>, the graphic artists perhaps didn\u2019t quite understand Alvart\u2019s film \u2013 and that\u2019s apparently what audiences shared during the film\u2019s theatrical release.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As my DVD review<\/a> attempts to examine, there is much to admire and be frustrated with, because some unfortunate decisions \u2013 mostly assuming style should supersede coherence \u2013 will probably ensure Pandorum<\/strong> will never live up to its promise, since the picture is permanently locked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michl Britsch\u2019s score, however, certainly does hit Alvart’s aspirations. It\u2019s a weird melange of orchestral, industrial and rock that shape-shifts every few seconds into something beautifully nasty, and is worth snapping up from MovieScore Media. (My review will appear in a forthcoming issue of Rue Morgue magazine.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dennis Quaid, interestingly, was Alvart\u2019s top choice as star, and that stems from the director\u2019s huge affection for Quaid\u2019s 1987 film Innerspace<\/strong>, which has grown into a favourite cult film that fused elements of slapstick comedy, science-fiction, and a nostalgia for classic sci-fi films.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s perhaps unsurprising that Jerry Goldsmith\u2019s music score is equally beloved by fans, and tangentially part of Quaid\u2019s recent film wave, La-La Land Records has released the complete score on a beautifully mastered CD. The original Geffen LP contained just a few cues (plus dated pop songs), whereas the new limited release album features 78 mins.\u00a0 of goodness.<\/p>\n

Goldsmith scored both Outland<\/strong> and Alien<\/strong>, two films that exploited the fear of being isolated in spaceship, or in a restrictive environment, and like Outland<\/strong>, Dark Castle\u2019s Whiteout<\/strong> takes the Outland<\/strong> template and repositions it to the chilly locale of Antarctica.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whiteout<\/a><\/strong> is an atypical Dark Castle production, and much like Pandorum<\/strong>, it was sold using a rather deceptive ad campaign. Pandorum<\/strong>\u2019s trailer infers the cannibalistic creatures are what the surviving humans will quickly become<\/em> (not true), whereas the Whiteout<\/strong> trailer makes it seem as though there’s a Presence, or a Force, or a Being that the sheriff\u00a0discovers in a submerged Soviet plane lost during the Cold War.<\/p>\n

Not so.<\/p>\n

Based on the graphic novel by\u00a0Steve Lieber and Greg Rucka, Whiteout<\/strong> is a fairly straightforward whodunnit that happens to be set at the bottom of the world.\u00a0Why Dark Castle, makers of gory horror shockers (The Hills Run Red<\/a><\/strong>) chose a whodunnit is, uhm, a mystery, since the film is essentially \u2018an xtreme whodunnit\u2019 with lots of cold air.<\/p>\n

Is it a dud?<\/p>\n

Nope, but the lack of distinctive extras \u2013 paltry on the DVD, and some exclusive interactive material on the Blu-ray \u2013 leaves one to believe the film was hurried to home video.<\/p>\n

The biggest shock: Kate Beckinsale is quite good, and she grounds the movie with an earnest performance.<\/p>\n

Not surprising: Dominic Sena\u2019s wonky use of flashbacks that assume you may have less short-term memory capabilities than a goldfish.<\/p>\n

To goldfish, that\u2019s just rude.<\/p>\n

– MRH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The confusions within Christian Alvart’s Pandorum, a relatively bloodless Whiteout, and Jerry Goldsmith’s Innerspace…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-8k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}