Passengers

Passengers

Starring Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne

Directed by Morten Tyldum

The Story:
In the distant future, 5,000 passengers from Earth have boarded the Avalon to relocate to a new planet called Homestead II.  The trek would take 125 years, so everyone was put in hibernation stasis, and would be woken up a few months before arrival.

When the ship hits an asteroid belt, it jars one of the pods open and mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is accidentally awakened.  He learns he can't go back to sleep, no one else is awake, and he's alone on the ship 90 years before he was supposed to wake up.  The only other thing he can communicate with is bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen), a robot who works on the ship.

After one year of complete isolation, he finds a pod belonging to author Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence).  Jim is immediately smitten and makes the decision to wake her up.  As the two begin a budding relationship, the secret of how Aurora was really awakened lingers on Jim's mind, and unbeknownst to the both of them, the ship suffered serious damage and could spell doom for Jim, Aurora and the other passengers on the ship.

The Synopsis:
I love movies set in space.  "Star Wars," "Star Trek," "2001," "Gravity," "Moon," "Europa Report," and many others are on my favorites list.  There's something about the mysteries of the vastness of space that intrigues me and fascinates me, so when I heard of a movie featuring two of today's hottest actors taking place in space, I couldn't wait to see it.  Sadly, the mystery and allure of space wasn't enough to really enjoy this movie, as it turned out to be "Titanic" set in space, and a twisted love story that borderlines on the criminal.

An asteroid hit made Jim's pod open early, which I don't fully understand why that happened to only one pod on the entire ship, but Jim was the unfortunate winner of fate's wicked lottery.  Just so happens he turned out to be a mechanical engineer (such a lucky break for everyone on the ship, since he had the technical knowhow to find the problems with the ship; if a banker, Uber drive or cartoonist was awakened instead, everyone would've been screwed), which proves to help him later in the movie.  While Chris Pratt has a great charismatic nature, it only works when he's opposite another person.  By himself, he's rather boring.  He goes about the ship during the year conversing with Arthur, playing basketball, sleeping in the penthouse suite, and participating in a solo Dance Dance Revolution game.  Plus he tries unsuccessfully to re-operate his pod or get into the captain's quarters.

All the while, the ship continues taking damage and puts everyone's lives at risk.

One day he finds Aurora's pod, and in a twisted version of Sleeping Beauty, falls in love with the sleeping beauty.  Here is where the question of ethics and morality come into play, which was the most fascinating part of the film.  Does he wake her up, knowing he's pretty much robbing her of any future?  Or does he let her sleep and continue on in his solitary journey, void of any human contact?

While I'm quick to judge Jim for his actions, I can also see where he's coming from.  Even though I prefer a rather solitary existence, if I knew I was the only person awake I probably would long for some sort of human companionship.  Still, he wakes her up in a way that's very shady, keeping the truth from her after she wakes up.  I bet he didn't want a crazy woman who holds him responsible for crushing all her hopes and dreams for the future being the only other person awake, but it's still a very bad way to start a relationship.  If it were me, I would've let her sleep and spent my time with the robot Arthur.  Michael Sheen stands out as one of the best robots set to screen.  He's witty, charming, funny, and personable, and personally I wouldn't have minded being just me and him on the ship because he seemed like an entertaining robot to talk to.


Jennifer Lawrence truly shines here as Aurora, a woman who runs the gambit of emotions and showcases it in not just her speech but her body language and facial expressions as well.  She is known as this generation's Meryl Streep, and I can see why.  She makes you feel for her character, emphasize with her plight, and also oddly enough feel protective of her as she begins a relationship with Jim, as we know what really happened to her.

Speaking of the couple, the chemistry between the two is lukewarm at best.  It was very hard to buy into the fact that they're a couple because they truly love each other, but just because they're literally the last man and woman on earth.  Not to mention the whole beginning of their relationship was based on a terrible lie, which detracts from any true emotion of love that could be felt.

All the while, the ship continues taking damage and puts everyone's lives at risk.

Then one day chief deck officer Gus Mancuso - played by a very underused Laurence Fishburne - also wakes up randomly just in time to advance the story to the point of its climax, as he discovers the ship has been taking some serious beatings and they have to fix it before it causes irreplaceable damage.  Funny how this has been happening all this time, yet Jim and Aurora never bothered to check it out.  Anyway, the film shifts to the end of "Titanic" as the ship is about to sink, but unlike "Titanic" there's a chance to steer the ship in the right direction.  Thankfully the action picks up here and we see more of space - which, again, is absolutely beautiful - but too little too late to save the film from being something more amazing than it was.

Directed by Morten Tyldum - the genius behind the Benedict Cumberbatch-led "The Imitation Game" - I expected a more detailed, nuanced, in-depth tale that would pull at the heartstrings and deliver a knockout performance.  Instead, it was an irritating tale of strange love, forced distress and one of the campiest endings ever.

The Summary:
Even though the film features two of the best actors out there, "Passengers" fails to elicit an overly positive response and ends up barely above average, due to the lack of chemistry between the leads, a convoluted story and a typical Hollywood ending.

The Score: B