[Review] Passengers (7/10)

Without the star power and wattage of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, Passengers would not have achieved its modest level of success.

The story mostly revolved around its two leads and their chemistry together to sell the movie. While still lacking slightly in that department, their performances did save the day; especially Pratt whose comedic timing was always spot on even in this drama. The little body language and nuances in expressions were enough to incite laughter.

All these were under the capable direction of Morten Tyldum though this could be viewed as a step-down from his previous movie, The Imitation Game.

But the script from Jon Spaihts had some minor holes, a lot of times were for convenience. Right from the beginning I was wondering how such an advanced ship had no pre-programmed evasive maneuvers when it came to an asteroid field. Wouldn't that be factored in when it was meant to travel for 120 years in space?

The concept reminded me of Titanic - the unsinkable ship, as it was advertised to its passengers. And the mistake always stemmed from human flaws, to the point that their ego would not even consider the possibility of malfunction and have a solution standby. I thought that was the most interesting part watching how that continued to be the downfall of humanity.

But the love story was very well executed by Tyldum without feeling any part was hammered over our heads, though it did feel a little bit long in the first half. A few questions left unanswered like Michael Sheen's robot choices in conversation that led to the third act.

I would have preferred the ending to go another way but I guess Hollywood still likes to show us happy endings.