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Passengers tells the story of two… Passengers on board a ship headed for a new planet who awaken from induced hibernation ninety years too soon. The film stars Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Sheen and is directed by Morten Tyldum (Headhunters, The Imitation Game)

My Thoughts On The Characters And Story

I was actually looking forward to this film for quite some time; films set in isolated and limited locations are some of my favourites, I love anything to do with space since it is frigging space and is a phenomenal backdrop to use, plus I am a huge fan of Star Trek. I also love Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt so this film really should have been up my alley since it ticks all of the above boxes… Unfortunately, no amount of witty remarks uttered by Lawrence & Pratt and beautiful space shots could have saved Passengers.

A majority of the film rides on the chemistry between Pratt and Lawrence’s characters and although they were enjoyable to watch together, their performances were a little bit on the bland side. There were a few moments where I enjoyed watching them together since they are naturally charismatic people and I even chuckled at a few parts which was nice. Their characters are also given pretty developed backstories so I felt pretty comfortable with their development. Overall though, the amount of duh.. staring going on became a little grating at times. To be fair, the actors didn’t have much to work with, and hey, Michael Sheen was one of my favourite aspects of it since his character served his purpose by progressing the film along and portraying an android beautifully. The ultimate progression along though is not anything special. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about it and although the moral and ethical question it poses could have created a ridiculously entertaining picture, Passengers falls short of enthralling me in any way.

How Were The Other Aspects Of ‘Passengers’?

Passengers does have some great shots. Despite the overuse of the medium-shots that are used to illustrate just how beautiful these two are, and they are, there were one or two shots that genuinely woke me up from the mild slumber I was in. The gravity loss sequences are also gorgeously done. That Swimming Pool sequence that many knew of prior to the release of the film was lovely to see on the big screen.

See The Clip Below:

This really is a shining example of style over substance because on the surface, it is certainly beautiful looking and I loved the sequences where characters were in space or looking longingly at the beautiful darkness of the galaxy… When dealing with the “substance” issue, the dialogue is easily one of the worst aspects to this film. Oh my god, there were a number of eye-rolling moments with romantic dialogue that wasn’t exactly Attack Of The Clones-level terrible, but had it lasted longer than it did I’m pretty sure it would have reached the Danger Zone. I also can’t help but wonder how much more intriguing the film would’ve been had they rearranged the order of scenes. I am not going to delve into spoiler territory (although I’m certain whoever wants to watch it, has done it already), but had the film just cut out that beginning portion and allowed certain revelations to be revealed later on, I feel like it would have been a much more enjoyable watch.

If you’re looking for a movie with beautiful leads that is beautiful on the surface with not much else going on, check out Passengers.

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Passengers receives 2.5/5 Matt Damon heads.