Passengers review: Christ Pratt has just woken up alone with only Jennifer Lawrence for company in this new sci-fi drama. Does it shine bright, or free-fall into oblivion?
Passengers review, Paul Heath.
A cross between Castaway and Gravity, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star in this new film from celebrated filmmaker Morten Tyldum (Headhunters, The Imitation Game), an ambitious sci-fi-drama-romance, which beams in this Christmas.
Set in the near future (we guess), Passengers revolves around a spacecraft carrying over 5000 people on a 120-year mission to a planet where they will all settle in a new habitat. However, things have gone a little awry as one of the passengers, Jim Preston (Pratt), has woken up ninety years too early. With only a constantly-beaming robot bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen) for company, and the endless, empty corridors of the Starship Avalon to wander around, Preston soon becomes massively aware of his fate – he will probably die alone on board as all of the remaining passengers continue in their blissful slumber. Everything changes when Jennifer Lawrence’s character of Aurora Lane comes into play. Also awake, by means we won’t spoil here, the young, attractive writer from New York City instantly bonds with Preston and the two immediately start to fall for one another. It’s not plain sailing though as the ship slowly begins to start malfunctioning all around them. Both must work together to overcome many obstacles and understand the real reason as to why they are the only two conscious.
Passengers is a surprisingly simple movie. It boasts a limited cast of just four actors with the first 30 minutes or so is solely left to Chris Pratt to flex his thespian muscles and carry the film on his own. He does so successfully, and indeed his early scenes are some of the most enjoyable in the entire movie. You see, Passengers is at its absolute best when it is at its less complex. When certain other characters start to appear, one’s interest dips, but the questions that the film raises early on keep our attention as the film progresses on. Jennifer Lawrence is, as you may expect, excellent as the startled sleeping beauty Aurora, a strong female character who really comes into her own in the second half. Their on-screen chemistry is electric, which we’d probably expect from two of the hottest and most attractive actors on the planet, and their early interaction when they start to fall for one-another is both believable and interesting to watch play out.
The big problem that Passengers has is its plodding nature. We all must have seen the promotional footage from the film where Jennifer Lawrence takes a dip in a swimming pool before the gravity system on the space-craft decides to give up? Well, we have to endure seeing Aurora take that plunge three times before that event happens, and the same can be said for the rest. There’s just not enough going on to stop you looking down at your watch to see how long into this voyage you’ve taken so far.
Sure, there are some impressive set-pieces, the special effects are magnificent, and and the production design is also very nice and glossy, even if very familiar – but that’s the big overall problem. The film feels like you’ve seen it all before and has so many elements of other films and plot devices contained withing it that it lacks its own identity.
I had a good time with it – I will even forgive the schmaltzy, predictable ending – because I liked spending time with Jim and Aurora and it’s so very far from a terrible movie.
Is it a journey I’d repeat though? Well, most probably not.
Passengers review by Paul Heath, December 2016.
Passengers is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 21st December 2016.
