Passengers (2016)

	Directed by: Morten Tyldum	COUNTRY USA GENRE Science Fiction NORWEGIAN TITLE Passengers RUNNING TIME 116 minutes
	Produced by: Neal H. Moritz Stephen Hamel Michael Maher Ori Marmur
	Written by: Jon Spaihts

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Aurora Lane	Jennifer Lawrence	½
Jim Preston	Chris Pratt	½
Arthur	Michael Sheen
Chief Gus Mancuso	Laurence Fishburne	½
Captain Norris	Andy Garcia
Celeste	Aurora Perrineau

Review

This slick and extremely atmospheric sci-fi yarn is directed with more consideration for the cinematic and literary science fiction tradition, or should I say nostalgia, than for the heavy moral and existential questions the script raises. The plot: A starship headed for the Earth-like planet Homestead II with 5,000 hibernated colonists from Earth crashes into an asteroid field and suffers unknown damage that causes one of the hibernation pods to malfunction, waking up one of the passengers, mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), after only 30 years of the 120-year-long journey. He can roam the premises and use the ship's facilities, including befriending the android bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen), but he cannot reactivate his pod, and he faces no other prospect than living out his life alone on the ship. That is, until he discovers a passenger named Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence).

In the first third of Passengers, our inevitable questions around Jim's situation are heard and treated with respect by the filmmakers; we get to experience his alternating loneliness, wonder, desperation, and small glimpses of hope as he works in high gear to fully assess his situation and what he is able to do about it. The film portrays quite effectively how one would go through different phases of despair before finally coming to terms with one's destiny. And the starship Avalon is among the most attractive and best-established in movie history – you really get the spatial feel of the ship.

In its second half, Passengers occasionally loses focus and finds itself increasingly Hollywoodised, as Jim turns his attention to Aurora Lane. Still, director Morten Tyldum manages to retain a certain drive in the midst of its romanticised notions and action-driven shortcuts. The ethical dilemmas raised by the protagonists' choices are discussed and help keep the film constantly interesting, even if they are eventually brushed aside by some standardised hyperbolics that threaten to negate the more interesting and authentic observational style established in the film's first part. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence both do well with their parts when Tyldum lets them, though Lawrence's part remains somewhat too restricted, and Pratt lacks the presence to single-handedly carry the film's existential weight towards the end.