Passengers

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SPOILER WARNING

     Passengers is a science fiction adventure film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. It’s directed by Morten Tyldum, who previously directed the much-acclaimed The Imitation Game (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award) in 2014. Passengers doesn’t quite reach those heights. On a story level, Passengers fails to live up to the standard of its own premise, but it still makes an interesting enough time at the theater for a casual viewing.

     In Passengers, Jim Preston (Pratt) awakens on board the starship Avalon. The Avalon is on its way to a future colony-planet, bearing 5000 passengers in stasis for the 120-year trip. A fault in the system, caused by a meteor collision, awakens Jim alone some 90 years early. A year later, he awakens fellow passenger Aurora (Lawrence), telling her that her pod malfunctioned as well. Together, they must cope with spending their lives alone—and fix the malfunction in the ship’s systems before it threatens the lives of everyone on board.

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     Let’s cut to the chase: Passengers is better titled “Hot People in Space.” The major selling point of the film is that it features two actors who are, arguably, this generation’s superstars. The movie is a chance to see these fun, young, charismatic, ridiculously attractive people cavort around and have misadventures. And it’s a worthy goal, because the actors have undeniable chemistry. They’re alluring and engaging to watch. They also have more than a few steamy moments (including some gratuitous shots of Pratt’s ass). More importantly, they’re really funny together, which isn’t surprising considering the sheer force of their quirky personalities.

     Their humor is a vital aid to the movie, because before Aurora awakens (notice the Sleeping Beauty reference, hardy-har) the humor struggles to land. There are several missteps early on in the film when Jim is alone on the ship. It’s not Pratt, though; the directing and pacing seems to be oddly executed. The humor almost seems out of place in the earliest portions of the film.

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     Passengers is undeniably fun for a while. The audience watches as Jim and Aurora go around the ship, making use of its amenities and privileges on their own. For a while, they rule their own private world, living like kings, but in total isolation from other people. The world of the ship is flashy, neon, and glorious—a super-advanced luxury cruise liner from the future.

     One of Passengers’ greatest assets is its visual effects, which are modest but impressive. The film has a shiny, richly colorful palate that’s pleasing to the eye. Especially wonderful is space itself, which Jim and Aurora venture into on more than one occasion (and which serves as the backdrop in several locales). It’s vibrant and beautiful, effectively capturing the awe that the characters experience.

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     On a story level, the film benefits from a serious and intriguing ethical dilemma. Jim has to decide whether or not he should wake Aurora, thereby condemning her to life spent isolated on the ship, likely dying before the rest of the ship’s occupants are scheduled to awaken. It’s an extremely selfish (if understandable) move, which is why Jim is so tortured by it. Once Aurora awakes, Jim doesn’t tell her the truth, leaving that revelation (and the subsequent fallout) hanging over his head. That premise is a fascinating one to explore.

     When the third act of the movie begins, however, Passengers struggles on the story front. Having begun with an exciting premise, it quickly gives way to more cliché action/adventure beats that disappoint—considering the introspective promise of the first two-thirds. Rather than capitalize on that and explore some new meaningful territory, it gets bogged down in sci fi tropes. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t quite know where to go from there, and so they throw in some explosions, countdowns, sacrifices, and last-minute revivals for good measure. The result is that Passengers ends up being just so-so, instead of profound and lasting.

photo courtesy of ew.com

     There’s some real plot contrivances in the third act. The fact that Jim survives his sacrificial intervention (which involves getting blasted with heat from the ship’s reactor) and the presence of only one healing pod capable of hibernation on the entire ship are just two that come to mind. Laurence Fishburn’s role as ship official Gus comes and goes so quickly that it seems entirely too convenient and even unnecessary. And unlike Aurora, his awakening is random, necessitating no action or agency from either of our main characters. That’s a missed opportunity.

     The characters are textbook two-dimensional cutouts. We know a few facts about both Jim and Aurora (he’s a mechanic and she’s a writer), and we’re provided a brief sketch of their motivations in going on this journey to the colony world. Other than that, we know almost nothing about these characters. It’s a pity, because knowing anything (their hopes, desires, family, etc) would aid the movie quite a bit. But instead, neither of them have any sense of history at all: run of the mill tabula rasa syndrome. 

     The movie also seems to ignore the fact that what Jim does to Aurora by waking her up is a horrendous deed. We sympathize with him, of course, being alone for the rest of his life. But it seems like the fallout from that decision is never properly explored. It bears such weight, and could lead to such an interesting place in the film’s third act, but instead the movie reverts to a fight/get-back-together finale that wouldn’t be altogether out of place in a romantic comedy. Aurora forgives too quickly and too easily. The movie ought to have allowed the weight of that dilemma to sink in.

photo courtesy of slashfilm.com

     That’s another way of saying that the ending is, again, a missed opportunity. There are better and more fruitful ways to spend our time toward the conclusion of the film, but instead it settles for normal. You get the feeling that a more daring ending might have been the original intention, but a studio exec interfered, insisting on a safer, more reliable ending.

     Having by now thoroughly criticized the movie, I must confess that it was still a fun watch. It makes a fine enough outing at the theaters, and a casual moviegoer should be able to enjoy the movie just taking it for what it’s worth—a shameless romp in space. Ultimately, Passengers is an enjoyable and visually engaging sci fi film with top-notch casting, even if it falls prey to disappointing narrative weaknesses. 

photo courtesy of ign.com