"What if you were trapped on a cruise ship for the rest of your life?"
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt-starrer, Passengers, an expensive sci-fi romantic movie, has earned mixed response. The Hollywood Reporter's Sheri Linden said: "There is, at first, a thrilling what-if in Jon Spaihts' screenplay, which concocts a sort of Titanic in outer space, with dollops of 'Sleeping Beauty' and Gravity thrown into the high-concept mix."
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt play fellow passengers on a giant spaceship named Avalon, heading towards an off-world colony, with 4,999 fellow travellers still in hibernation. Here's the official synopsis of the movie:
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star in an exciting action-thriller about two passengers who are on a 120-year journey to another planet when their hibernation pods wake them 90 years too early. Jim and Aurora are forced to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction as the ship teeters on the brink of collapse, with the lives of thousands of passengers in jeopardy.
Critics seem to be very disappointed as Linden raises a very surreal question — "So what's a lost-in-space guy to do but avail himself of the fine dining, game rooms and VIP quarters?"
Tim Robey of The Telegraph wrote, "It's unsurprising that a male screenwriter – Doctor Strange and Prometheus' Jon Spaihts – cooked up this idea, which essentially co-opts Aurora as an oblivious His Girl Friday to lonesome Jim, a bespoke soul mate for his epic commute. What's more depressing is how little thought Spaihts put in to actually giving her a character."
Praising the actress, he has written, "Lawrence is more gorgeous than ever, but it's not only Pratt's Jim getting his perv on: the movie finds every possible excuse to strip them down to their skimpies..."
Robey seemed curious about the film's plot — "We could ask, too, what reason these characters have for leaving their Earth lives behind. The answer is that they have no lives behind, being characters – one-line resumés, sign-on opportunities for movie stars who should know better – rather than people."
IndieWire's Kate Erbland called it a disaster, writing, "Passengers refuses to really wrestle with the compelling questions at its core, instead opting to lean on Lawrence and Pratt's collective charm to keep things ticking amiably along. The problem is, this isn't an amiable story — it's a philosophically thorny one, and aiming to keep things light doesn't dilute any of its issues, it just dumbs the entire outing down."
Calling it "too bad", Variety's Owen Gleiberman has written, "Because for its opening 45 minutes or so, "Passengers" is a reasonably cunning slice of commercial sci-fi, even as it overtly recycles the strategies of films like "The Martian" and "Moon." When Jim first wakes up, he thinks the voyage of the Avalon is complete (the passengers are scheduled to come out of hibernation four months before the end of the journey). It doesn't take long for him to realise, though, that something is amiss. He's surrounded by chirpy holograms and talking food dispensers — but there's no other live human."
Entertainment Weekly's Chris Nashawty quipped bluntly about it, "Alas, Passengers is not very good. In fact, it's pretty bad." In the mean time, he expressed his thought over Lawrence's character and said that she deserved better than what she's given in terms of her role. "She's stuck in what essentially amounts to a risable two-hour exhibit of sci-fi Stockholm Syndrome. But cheer up, even the best movie stars need to make a howler like this every once in a while. It makes us appreciate the good ones more."
However, Passengers has got some good reviews from a few critics; James Dyer of Empire gave it a four-star rating. "Pratt and Lawrence are magnetic as the literal star-crossed lovers, convincingly seduced by each other over the passage of time; an awkward, space-suit-bumping kiss giving way to a passionate, Cheerios-all-over-the-floor breakfast shag," he explained.
Passengers is slated to release on December 21.
Director: Morten Tyldum.
Cast: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne.
Runtime: 116 mins
MPAA Rating: PG-13
