Passengers

Plot without Spoilers:  Jim (Chris Pratt) and Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) are mistakenly awoken from hibernation on a interstellar spaceship, and no one else is awake. They can't go back to sleep so they try to make the best of it, until spaceship malfunctions threaten to kill them. [imdb]    [photos]

Review without spoilers: It is hard to discuss Passengers without knowing the plot twists and the questions of sacrifice and selfishness. There are multiple levels and most obvious is the Sci-Fi problem solving like The Martian at the beginning and the special-effects heavy action scenes at the end.

Most interesting are the moral quandaries Jim and Aurora puzzle through. In their impossible situation we see what the characters do, and I wondered what I would have done.

Because the moral situations are the driver, the plot twists are contrived to make the choices more stark and absolute -- whereas on a Star Trek episode focused on adventure Scotty or Jordy would  find an Sci-Fi engineering solution to avoid a moral catastrophe -- this give a happy ending and avoids immoral or questionable choices that would make a network executive cringe. Here writer Tyldum wanted the characters to figure it out.  (See the Even More section below.) This change in tone is a little unfamiliar, but it is the core of the movie. 

Passengers is staying with me. I keep thinking about what would I have done. The moral dimension is why it is getting three stars.

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Plot with Spoilers: After a spaceship accident, Jim (Chris Pratt) is awoken from hibernation by a malfunction decades early with no way to return to hibernation and therefore fated to die before rest of the passengers awaken. He is lonely so he awakens cute female passenger to keep him company through the remaining decades, Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence). It's great for a while, but then she finds out that he woke her on purpose, and she is pissed. The spaceship continues to malfunction threatening their lives until Jim & Aurora work together to save themselves and the sleeping passengers.

Review with spoilers: Passengers is primarily about one or two people stuck in a life threatening situation. It is really about the moral choices especially Jim's selfishness in awakening Aurora, Aurora's choice when she learns about it, and the how Jim and Aurora choose to spend their future. While it looks like a Sci-Fi movie: most obvious is the Sci-Fi problem solving like The Martian at the beginning and the special-effects heavy action scenes at the end; it really is about the moral choices.

The soul of the movie is the moral lapse where Jim awakes Aurora just because he is lonely and in doing so sentencing her to death. This permeates every scene both before and after Aurora knows, and it deeps the ending where she agrees to stay with him. Jim seems likeable, but we know he may be a predator, and Chris Pratt's acting conveys that.

In their impossible situation we see what the characters do, and I wondered what I would have done.

Because the moral situations are the driver, the plot twists are contrived to make the choices more stark and absolute -- whereas on a Star Trek episode Scotty or Jordy would  find an Sci-Fi engineering solution to avoid a moral catastrophe -- this gives a TV happy ending and avoids immoral/questionable choices that would make a network executive cringe. Here writer Tyldum wanted the characters to figure it out.  (See the Even More section below.) This change in purpose is a little unfamiliar in Sci-Fi movies, but it is the core.

I liked Jennifer Lawrence a lot. She has a subtly in her expressions. Chris Pratt is more comic, but he is relate-able and amiable. It is easy to see why Aurora likes him. Michael Sheen shows up as a robot bartender, and give the characters someone to talk to. His deadpan delivery provides levity.

I liked the movie. Passengers is staying with me as I roll over the moral issues in my mind. 

Cast: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence

Directed by: Moren Tyldum

Written by: Jon Spaihts, who also wrote Doctor Strange. It is not based on a novel

The Music: Nice instrumental music by Thomas Newman.

The Visuals: There are many well-composed shots evoking loneliness and the beauty of space. I  liked the swimming pool and the window. I like the helical ship too.  

Rating: 3.5 stars: 

Even More:  This interview with writer Jon Spaihts talks about the moral quandaries at the core of the film, and some interesting insights into his process. He likes to minimize exposition at the beginning of the movie, and then dole it out as the audience needs it. In a Sci-Fi this can seem phoney in that it seems like -- Oh look the write set up this new twist in the "universe" just to enable this plot twist. On the other hand, the lack of exposition at the beginning made the film more lonely and beautiful.

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