'Passengers' is simply a sleek, well-designed curiosity
'Passengers' stars Chris Pratt as an engineer who is accidentally jostled out of hibernation on a space ship 90 years early. Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Sheen co-star.
'Passengers' stars Chris Pratt (l.) and Jennifer Lawrence (r.).
Jaimie Trueblood/Columbia Pictures/Sony/AP
鈥淧assengers鈥� is a sci-fi escapade that, like most of its ilk, wants to be a聽deep-think experience, too. Directed by Morten Tyldum (鈥淭he Imitation聽Game鈥�) and written by Jon Spaihts, it鈥檚 set in the distant future aboard a聽spaceship housing 5,000 paying passengers and more than 200 crew聽members. All are initially encased in pods in a state of inanimate聽hibernation for the 120-year journey from an overpopulated Earth to the聽more hospitable planet Homestead II.
When one of the passengers, Jim (Chris Pratt), an engineer, is聽accidentally jostled out of hibernation 30 years into the flight due to a聽meteor hit, he finds himself alone in the big, gleaming, well-appointed聽spaceship, with only an android bartender (Michael Sheen) to keep him聽company 鈥� until he makes the decision to awaken New York writer聽Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence), the no-longer sleeping beauty who becomes,聽for a time, his soul mate. Without the ability to reenter their pods, Jim聽and Aurora will die long before the spaceship reaches Homestead II, so聽there is a poignancy in their predicament.
If the filmmakers had delved into the direness of their situation and聽mined it for more than just a grand-scale lovers鈥� spat in outer space, the movie聽might have been more than a sleek, well-designed curiosity. Pratt聽does a creditable job of playing distraught without seeming like a ninny,聽and Lawrence at least looks stylish, though she鈥檚 not called upon to do聽much acting. You can almost hear her saying to herself, "I wonder what聽David O. Russell has planned for his next movie and can I pretty please聽have a role in it?"聽Grade: B- (Rated PG-13 for sexuality, nudity and action/peril.)