There's a lot to like in Christian Alvart's lean, mildly scary but always engrossing 'Pandorum,' which plays like the best movie based on a video game to not actually have a video game to base it on.

Pandorum is a form of dementia incurred when one goes cuckoo after spending too much time cooped up in a craft traveling gazillions of light years across the universe.

Even though the movie is technically sound with its plot linearity, passable action and modest intrigue, “Pandorum” ultimately suffers from a variety distractions. The audience will invariably raise ...