He could have chosen to go even more insular and gone Mano a Mano, I have always felt the runtime and pacing betrayed the budget myself, and that Paul W.S Anderson does not know the meaning of subtlety. Although the film tries to fool you for the first half hour into thinking he does, it has the exact same issues as Event Horizon in inconsistent tone, and then going overboard at the first opportunity. He tried to go big with little and did not succeed.