Passengers is the new Chris Pratt / Jennifer Lawrence science fiction flick about a space ark delivering 5000+ people in suspended animation to a new world when something goes wrong. Namely, 30 years into a 120 year trip, people are awakened and can’t go back under so face a lonely life before dying of old age even before reaching their destination.
I kind of liked this movie. It’s got some real obvious Hollywood / studio manipulation problems though. There’s a third act that turns what starts as kind of a movie about isolation and loneliness into a generic action movie. It also introduces a romance that’s pretty good but has a potentially creepy side.
That ick-factor revolves around a moral dilemma the movie doesn’t address in the trailers. This dilemma is, I’m pretty sure, one of the major reasons the movie has such bad reviews. And, sure, they have a point but it’s not like the movie doesn’t deal with it… but not to the satisfaction of some and I get their point. But this, I think, is the kind of messy factor that the Hollywood manipulation introduced.
I’m being very vague here but I’m trying to get across that this is far from the worst movie ever. It gets its story-structure and tone all messed up but its still a great looking film with some great sets (some of them real), a good tone (sometimes), it’s reasonably smart, and it has very attractive and charismatic actors who play their parts seriously. The psychological dilemma of being trapped on the ship for the rest of their lives is handled seriously – some may argue the movie is far too slow and not enough happens and they wouldn’t be wrong (until that big Hollywood set piece action scene – which, while not bad, felt added in).
Chris Pratt is, well, Chris Pratt – it’s hard to hate the guy. He’s naturally charismatic and likeable. He is, in fact, too charismatic for a different version of this movie – a darker version that’s more about isolation and desperation. But that’s not the tone the movie went for so Pratt works. Jennifer Lawrence is good too though her character is a little less fleshed out.
I did think the ending was bologna though. There were at least four better ways to end the movie that I thought up on the spot… but I can’t say more without spoilers. But, yeah, on top of a bad ending, I thought it was a touch confusing too – I’m 90% sure I get what happened but there’s than remaining 10 that said, “wait? what?”
So this is ultimately a confused movie that is trying to do something interesting and succeeds more than it fails. But you can still see the hand of the studios trying to save it either through a lighter tone, casting, or tacking on Hollywood-style ending. There is a creepy ethical issue that will be a single-issue deal-breaker for some. I can’t say they are wrong, but I see the studio getting in the way enough for me to look past it for the sake of the rest of the movie and the actors.
Man, dancing around a subject is tiring and tiresome.
Score: 81