Coming into the Christmas slate, Passengers promised to be one of the season’s most prominent release. Featuring the A-list duo of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, as well as a big science fiction story. Well, so far that has not been the case for the movie.
Drastically underperforming at the box office so far and netting a terrible 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite that, the cast still gave me some hope it would ok. The film follows a spacecraft that is traveling to a new planet. On the way, two passengers are woken up from their sleeping pods, and must work to repair the ships’ malfunctions.
From start to finish, Passengers is not only one of the year’s biggest disappointments, but also one of the year’s worst films. Lacking any sort of entertainment or even competency throughout, its shocking to see two of Hollywood’s biggest stars present in the movie.
Perhaps the only redeemable aspect of this film is its introduction. Most of beginning features Pratt and an android played by Michael Sheen, and the beginning is actually kind of fun. The duo have fun chemistry together, and the air of mystery surrounding the events that happened got me interested to see what happened next.
Preceding that however is the equivalent of a sinking ship, with almost nothing going right. What is perhaps most surprising is how little chemistry Pratt and Lawrence have together onscreen. The duo may be two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but I didn’t buy their romance for one second. Lawrence in particular gives a surprisingly dull performance, seemingly just there for the paycheck. Considering their dynamic is the heart of the movie, its a big misstep.
It’s hard to blame them too much when the script here is one of the year’s worst. Jon Spaiths, who did good work with Dr Strange, crafts a script that is plagued with issues. There really is very little semblance of a story, with the movie relying heavily on the base of its concept. While that can work for some movies, the lack of direction in narrative became problematic, with the film seemingly going nowhere. It’s odd that the film doesn’t introduce its central conflict until the final third, making the first two thirds feel pointless.
This movie is so odd because it tries to do so much and succeeds at none of it. The film tries to be a science fiction epic, but the science fiction aspects are so half-baked. Then it tries to be a romance, but the romance has absolutely no chemistry. At the end, it tries to have a grand action finale, but the action scenes themselves aren’t really that impressive.
Worst of all, Passengers has some really creepy undertones with its romance. There is a choice made in the first third by one of the characters that defines the main relationship in a icky place. Even when the character tries to justify it, its an inexcusable action that gives the romance a lack of authenticity from the start.
Passengers had promise to be a fun Christmas season crowdpleaser, but fails on nearly all levels. I still have no clue how both stars signed up for this script without raising any concerns.