Directed by: Morten Tyldum
Written by: Jon Spaihts
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen
I have a soft spot for sci-fi. Put a film in space, or on an alien planet, set it in a dystopian future or throw in some A.I. shenanigans, I'll probably enjoy it more than I do most films. This was definitely how I felt at the start of Passengers; the concept of two people doomed to die on a spaceship with only each other for comfort sounds like an interesting way to examine human concepts like loneliness, morality and outlook on life, but by the end, the movie doesn't really do much with its ideas.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
The film opens on the Avalon, a spaceship heading for Homestead II, a planet set to be colonized by the Avalon's population of 5000 passengers, and over 200 crew. Everyone is in hibernation, as the trip from Earth to Homestead II is 120 years. The Avalon makes contact with an asteroid field on its journey, and its shield is overloaded, causing one of the hibernation pods to malfunction and release its passenger, Jim Preston (Pratt), 90 years too early, with no way of getting back to sleep, and his only company being the automated robots and androids in the film, including the bartender Arthur (Sheen). The film's first act deals with Preston coming to terms with his situation, and it's easily the strongest part of the film; Pratt's charisma carries here, as Preston first tries to escape his ordeal and put himself back to sleep, then tries to escape his thoughts by living the high life and making the most of what the ship has to offer, then slowly approaches the idea of suicide to try and escape the fate dealt to him. The whole sequence is slickly edited, and does a good job of showing time pass without having to actually tell you. The film moves too quickly through this; Preston's emotional journey is given to us through montage, so the film never really lets us get attached to him as a character.
At the end of his rope, Preston discovers the pod of Aurora Lane (Lawrence), and thanks to some convenient video interviews kept on the ship, Preston learns about her and grows attached to her. It is here that he fights a moral dilemma; he knows how to wake her up, but doing so would doom her to the same fate as himself. After battling with the choice for weeks, he eventually releases her, letting her believe it was an accident the same as it was for him. This should have laced the second act with tension as the two became romantically entangled, but the film doesn't do much to suggest that there are stakes; the romance blossoms with cheesy flair, as Preston and Lane exchange charming and clever banter. The film never really doubles down on the terrible thing Preston has done until the film decides it's time to reveal this fact to Lane. When it does, Lawrence's performance is great; Lane immediately cuts off all contact from Preston, and her roller coaster of emotions as she deals with what has been done to her and by whom it has been done is very believable. Unfortunately this is followed by the final act.
It felt like at this point in the film the writer ran out of script. Rather than try to figure out how to get these two people to reconcile their differences, have Lane slowly come to understand Preston's position when he did what he did, turn away from him and find a way to go back in to hibernation herself, or anything that would make sense with the film's themes, the story takes a left turn and throws a life-endangering, ship-destroying spanner in to the works and forces the two of them to work together, which ultimately leads to them getting back together, No more talking about the fact the he's doomed her to die on this ship, he nearly dies to save the crew so everything's ok and they love each other again. It was brisk, immature and unsatisfying, with a strange cameo appearance from Laurence Fishburne that doesn't really do anything to help the story in a way that couldn't have been done without him. It's a truly disappointing ending that doesn't mesh with the rest of the story at all, abandoning the existential themes for a romance that, once again, had been passed over in montage, so there was never really any attachment to. The film starts out wanting to be a classical sci-fi that meditates on the nature of man and turns in to a poorly done action/romance in space.
The Verdict: Great concept with a fantastic start, Passengers falls apart as the film exchanges compelling (if slightly cheesy) character drama for some extreme space thrills, which were ineffective and dragged the movie on an unnecessary twenty minutes. This film is passable, something worth the watch if you enjoy sci-fi and/or romantic drama, but offering little of interest after its first half.
Rating: 5.5/10
Published January 8th, 2017
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