Starring
Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne,
Andy Garcia. Directed by Morten Tyldum. (2016, 116 min).
Passengers
is not the movie it was promoted as, which apparently pissed off
more-than-a-few critics & moviegoers. Perhaps touting the film as
space lovers in peril was a bit deceptive, especially with box office
darlings Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Pratt in the lead roles, but
the fact that its undertones are much darker raises it above the
by-the-numbers multiplex fodder it could have been.
The
Avalon is a massive starship on a 120 year voyage to colonize
another planet. Its 5,000 passengers & crew have been placed in
hibernation for the trip, but when the ship is damaged after passing
through a meteor storm, Jim Preston (Pratt) is accidentally awakened 90 years
early. With no way of returning to hibernation, he's alone with only a
robot bartender, Arthur (Michael Sheen), for company. He manages to
last a year before loneliness and despair (and thoughts of suicide)
threaten to overwhelm him.
Then
Jim sees Aurora (Lawrence) asleep in her pod and becomes fixated on
her, learning every aspect of her life through the ship's files,
which, in a way, is tantamount to cyberstalking. Being a mechanical
engineer, he figures out how to wake her up, and even though he's
well-aware doing so sentences her to life on-board the ship with no
chance of making it to the new world alive, Jim can't bare to face
the rest of his life all alone. Over time, the two fall in love, but
Jim doesn't tell Aurora he took it onto himself to wake her,
maintaining a ruse that it was another pod malfunction.
 |
| "Ruff! Ruff! I'm a bad doggy!" |
This
is where Passengers gets interesting. Jim knows what he has
done is morally unforgivable, and the guilt of his facade does weigh
on him, yet at the same time, how can he possibly endure alone
without losing his mind? This disturbing undercurrent is present
throughout the romantic montage of their first year together, and
effectively forces the viewer to ponder whether or not they would
have done the same thing if they were in Jim's shoes. Then Aurora
learns his secret and understandably freaks out. She can't forgive
what he's done and refuses to continue living around him.
Passengers
does such a great job making the viewer unsure of how to feel
about the creepy aspects of this relationship that it's almost a
shame when the film focuses on the actual plot: This entire time,
various functions of the Avalon have been breaking down, and it turns
out the meteor shower did a lot more damage than popping open Jim's pod. The
malfunctions become increasingly serious and life threatening. A crew member,
Chief Mancusco (Lawrence Fishburne), prematurely awakens just long
enough to inform them that the ship is doomed unless they can find
out what's tearing it apart. While this third act is suspenseful and exciting, it's also pretty predictable, as is the
Stockholm Syndrome aspect of the resolution.
 |
| "Do we really have to watch American Hustle again?" |
Until
then, Passengers offers a compelling situation, and somehow,
Pratt's inherent congeniality renders his character sublimely
sinister; the fact we like and identify with him almost makes us
co-conspirators. Since her character isn't quite as
interesting, Lawrence has a less challenging task, but she's
nonetheless appealing as the hapless object of Jim's affections. The
special effects and production design are also very impressive, the
Avalon, in particular. It's one of the more imaginatively conceived
space vessels I've seen in quite some time.
Passengers
may not be the straightforward sci-fi love story some people signed
on for, but it would be a shame to
dismiss any movie that practically forces the viewer to think long
and hard about what they'd do in the same situation. Is it possible
to empathize with someone who has no right to decide someone else's fate?
Discovering one's own answer to that question is what makes
Passengers unique. It
isn't often you can say that about a big-budget, high-concept film
aimed at a mass audience.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
FEATURETTES:
"On
the Set with Chris Pratt"; "Creating the Avalon" (ship
and set design); "Space on Screen: The Visual Effects of
Passengers"; Casting the Passengers"
"BOOK
YOUR PASSAGE" - This is a multipart mock 'infomercial' for
Homestead's colonization cruise.
"PASSENGERS:
AWAKENING" - A promo for the VR video game
OUTTAKES
(Blooper Reel)
DELETED
SCENES
DIGITAL
COPY
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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