Monday, January 02, 2017

Passengers


Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence play two hibernating passengers out of five thousand, traveling on a one hundred and twenty year voyage in space to a new colonized planet. For reasons I won't reveal, they both end up awake ninety years too soon and must learn to cope with life aboard the massive spaceship on their own.

Michael Sheen plays an android bartender named Arthur, Laurence Fishburne has a small cameo and Andy Garcia has what must be the shortest cameo in history. Otherwise the film rests completely with Mr. Pratt and Ms. Lawrence, both attractive and personal actors who try valiantly to hold the film together for two hours.  

The premise is intriguing  and the early parts of the film are interesting and hold your attention however, things begin to get tedious and more ludicrous as the film goes on.
There is a reveal that pumps some life into the story and one big action sequence to create a little excitement  (the outcome really strains credibility though) and the ending could have been far more interesting if it had gone in a different direction.

The special effects are very good (including Ms. Lawrence's make up which is always perfect) but the script ends up painting itself into a corner and the film ultimately has too much going against it to recover from a strong start that ends up a letdown. Unless of course, you want to watch a melodramatic, love story, space opera with less and less plausibility as it plays out.

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