“It’s murder!” Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) says after Jim (Chris Pratt) woke her 90 years too early from hibernation on a journey to another planet. Picture: © 2016 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Passengers is a cheesy love story in space. The idea sounds fun though: Jim (Chris Pratt) wakes up 90 years too early from hibernation on a space ship traveling a 120-year journey to another planet. After a year of loneliness, he decides to wake up Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) purely for selfish reasons even if he claims to have fallen in love with her by looking at her sleeping in the hibernation pod (surprise?) and reading her works; Aurora is a famous writer and a daughter of a Pulitzer-winning writer-father.
Of course, Jim won’t tell Aurora that it was him who woke her. She is led to believe that it was some kind of a malfunction in the pod.
The film is filled with platitudes and the actors don’t convince feeling anything for each other. And for those hoping to see a glimpse of a naked Jennifer Lawrence are going to be disappointed as well. There are a few scenes with Pratt’s butt, though.
As one can imagine, the journey is not going to be an easy ride. There are many conflicts and occasionally the only happy human-like character is a pantless android, Arthur.
Passengers is directed by Morten Tyldum, best known for his work on The Imitation Game (2014), the code-cracking story during World War II.
Jon Spaihts, is however, the writer behind Passengers. He was one of the writers of Doctor Strange (2016), which I’ve heard good things about.
But Passengers doesn’t work and the 3D doesn’t add anything to the bad dialogue and mediocre effects.
I was handed a pair of broken 3D glasses in the beginning of the screening and might have as well not bothered picking up a pair of new ones from the door.
Not that I would have really missed anything.
Passengers premieres in cinemas December 23.
