(PHOTO PROVIDED VIA GOOGLE)
CONTAINS SPOILERS
STARRING:
Jennifer Lawrence as Aurora Lane
Chris Pratt as Jim Preston
Michael Sheen as Arthur
Laurence Fishburne as Gus Mancuso
Andy Garcia as Captain Norris
(ALL PHOTOS PROVIDED VIA GOOGLE)
PLOT:
In the future, a corporation called Homestead offers their clients chances to start new lives and actually start over by building a new society. They sell the chance to colonize new worlds millions of light years away. Passengers starts off on board the star ship Avalon. It has 258 crew members and 5,000 passengers.
At the beginning of the film, all crew members and passengers are asleep in hibernation pods. This trip will take 120 years to get from Earth to the colony planet Homestead 2. The hibernation pods allow it's occupants to sleep for this time period and wake up 120 years later without aging.
Due to a malfunction, Jim Preston is released from his hibernation pod only 30 years into the journey. He spends 1 full year alone on the ship only to be comforted by the android bartender, Arthur, and whatever activities the ship provides to it's guests. As you could imagine, this would become quite lonely.
With the fear of dying alone and on the verge of suicide, Jim awakens Aurora Lane. However, she is not aware that he was the one to wake her. She believes that her pod also had a malfunction.
The ships owned by Homestead are not known to get malfunctions and it is deemed impossible for such things to happen. Due to quite a bit of drama after Aurora finds out the truth of her awakening and a ship shattering malfunction in engineering, Jim and Aurora find themselves in a situation that not only puts their lives at risk but also the rest of the 5,000 passengers of the ship.
LASTING IMPRESSION:
After all of the hype and all of the attention that this movie has generated for the better part of a year, I find myself disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I had fun watching this movie. I enjoyed both Pratt and Lawrence in the roles. Was it a movie that I felt that I needed to discuss once it ended, no. It really didn't leave a lasting impression with me. I wish I saw more of Laurence Fishburne as he only had a few minutes of screen time. I enjoyed Michael Sheen during his scenes. I wish Andy Garcia had a speaking roll as I am a fan of his. I get it, the whole point of the movie is to see what Jim Preston and Aurora Lane do when put in the situations that they were in. I understand the entire point of the movie. Maybe extend the end of the film a little and have the Captain of the ship be able to react to what he sees at the actual end of the movie. Give Jim and Aurora more of a meaningful end to their story and show how their experience effects everyone else.
I don't know, I guess I just wanted a little more out of this film then what I got. I will say this. I did like how Aurora Lane was a writer. I took it as a little nod to Lois Lane. But that could have just been me.
I give PASSENGERS a 3 out of 5 stars. It's fun but lacks. You want more, but not because they did a great job ending the story. The ending felt rushed.
