It’s pretty dark in space. If it wasn’t for the stars it would be, well, really dark. So it’s quite ironic then that on board a huge space ship, the designers didn’t really pick up on the whole lighting issue. Fail.

Just imagine then, waking up on board said ship, from one of those deep sleep chamber thingies, to find yourself having to strain to see more than a couple of feet in front of you - which let’s face it, can’t be good for the eyes.

This is what confronts Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Bower (Ben Foster) when they awaken from their sleep. Oh and the fact that they are not alone. They’ve both woken up with memory loss, of not only who they are, but where they are. And as Bower goes off to explore, he begins to notice that there are beings lurking in that darkness, and they don’t appear to be friendly.

The lighting budget for this film is so stingy I had to bring my own.

It won’t take you long to get a strange sensation of déjà vu watching Pandorum, as it’s a Frankenstein’s monster of a movie. The two biggest body parts sewn together are probably Aliens and the Resident Evil films. The latter is no surprise, considering that RE’s Paul W.S. Anderson produced this film. There’s a fine line between paying homage and simply ripping off other films – Pandorum tippy toes back and forth over that line throughout, so much so that said toes are bloodied beyond recognition.

Despite its lack of originality, German Christian Alvert manages to pull a few jumpy moments out of his director’s bag. It’s also great to see someone like Foster (who you may remember was superb in TV’s Six Feet Under as Claire Fisher’s odd boyfriend Russell), who isn’t archetypal leading man material, but being just that. He doesn’t have Arnie’s beef, or Bruce’s wit, but what he does have is the ability to act, which there’s no real arguing with.

And as far as Dennis Quaid goes, he doesn’t have to do that much, except look gruff and help navigate Bower around the ship. He may well get the top credit, but it’s definitely Foster who eats up the screen time.

Sadly the film does lose its way in its final third (what do you expect with all that darkness?), as it pulls on its clichéd space suit with pride. One of its final showdowns echoes that of the scene in Aliens where Ripley is in the Queen Alien’s chamber surrounded by eggs, to the degree that it feels like an embarrassing cut and paste job.

And the subplot regarding Pandorum itself – a psychosis brought on my prolonged space sleep that can leave sufferers feeling paranoid and allow them to experience hallucinations – although different, it feels tagged on very last minute, without any real connection to the film.

It may be sleek to watch, but ultimately Pandorum lets itself down by cloning the "In space, no one can hear you scream" story. And although they may well not hear us scream, it doesn’t stop us from tearing our hair out at its lack of originality.