Director: Morten Tyldum
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 116 minutes
Passengers (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
The many galaxies beyond ours still hold many secrets to us. We often wonder if we are the only sentient beings out there, or are we truly cursed to live the rest of our existence without ever coming across another race who can learn us a lot, to better our ways, to show what true harmony can be like. Nonetheless, one thing is certain, at a certain point in time our planet will run out of natural resource, and slowly wither and die. What we do as a species will be up to us: Scavenge and pick up the pieces, try to save what’s left to save, or migrate to other habitable planets. Passengers picks up said last scenario, where settlements are being founded on planets far – far way, namely 120 years of travel at half the speed of light.
As Earth is overcrowded, setting up colonies on other planets has become a very lucrative business. The only catch for those who want to help building a colony is simply the fact they will have to leave everyone behind and pay loads of money to get there. Of course, seeing certain trips take over a hundred years, the passengers, as well as the crew, have to be placed into stasis, to make sure they don’t age, or in this case die, before getting to their desired new location. In Passengers we’ll board the space vessel Avalon, which is undergoing a 120 year trip to Homestead II, the colony planet, with roughly 5000 passengers and 248 crew members. Sadly, due to a malfunction in one of the cryo pods, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) wakes up 90 years before the end of his voyage. While returning back to stasis would certainly be an option, it can only be done in the proper facility back on Earth, which, if he could turn the ship around, would still cost him thirty years of his life, if not more.
During his lonely stay on the ship, he is only accompanied by the android bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen), which is slowly driving him insane. Jim often ponders between fighting the boredom, trying to find a solution to put him back to sleep, or to simply end his life. Nonetheless, when he stumbles upon the pod of Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), a talented writer, he falls head over heels in love with her. However, due to this, he is thinking about waking her up, and acting like her pod malfunctioned as well. After nearly a year alone on the ship, Jim wakes up Aurora to accompany him on his lonely trip to the end of his life. Of course, whether or not he will tell the truth is the main question that rises.
Passengers is not a flashy or fast movie, where you’ll constantly be thrown into the fray. Instead you’ll get a fairly slow movie, which loves to adhere to its story, and setting up the right scenario, instead of blowing your socks off. Thanks to this, both the characters and their unique situations are properly sketched, making the movie a bit more personal, which, for this movie, is a great asset. While this pacing is certainly not for everyone, it proves that a space story doesn’t always have to be about grand battles, strange and hostile beings, or simply about visually stunning settings, rather than a simple, yet thoroughly worked out storyline.
Acting performances are quite good in this movie, which is certainly a plus, seeing at all times there are only two to three active cast members on set in this movie. You’ll have to make do with Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Sheen for the most part of the movie, with the latter playing only a supporting role. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence make a fairly adorable duo on set, which helps getting the ‘romantic’ mood going.
Sony is quite good in cramming a lot of special features on their physical releases, and this Blu-ray edition of Passengers is no exception. You’ll be treated to delete scenes, outtakes and a few making of segments which involve talking about the visual effects, the design of the Avalon and so on. Overall pretty standard stuff, but the ‘on set with Chris Pratt’ segment is quite fun to see, as well as the actual casting ideas, as there are only a few actors on set in this movie. Last but not least, you’ll be treated to some advertisements from the Homestead Company, showing how they promoted the Avalon in this fictional version of Earth.
Conclusion
Passengers is certainly a great title for those who love a ‘lost in space’ kind of scenario. Nonetheless, the slow pacing will not please every Sci-Fi fan, but if you open up to the story and the situation the characters find themselves in, you’ll see this movie’s worth. That being said, if you like a love story, a disaster in unknown territory and well seasoned actors, this movie will still end up entertaining you.
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