#so the lass from that film fully wakes me up every day

[mxrisacoulter]

true things AND weird science on bbc iplayer?? what a time to be ruth-wilson-stan-bastille-fangirl mels

[bloggy-hell]

MOVIE REVIEW: Passengers (2016)

PASSENGERS (2016): dir. by Mortem Tyldum Lead Actors: Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence My Rating: 7.610 Best Audience: Teen to adult audience with at least a small interest in the sci-fi/post-apocalyptic genre. Great Date Movie Idea!

Quick, Non Spoliery Synopsis by Yours Truly: 

A mixed pot of romance, action and sci-fi, the film Passengers finds a space ship malfunctioning 90 years before it is to reach its destination, awaking Jim Preston from his suspended slumber much earlier than his 5000 companions. It is here where Jim, portrayed by Chris Pratt must sacrifice his morals, love and even safety for the future of the ship and all of those on board, as once you have woken up in the middle of a 120 year journey, there’s no going back to sleep.

Nitty-Gritty Review Time 

*Definitely CAN’T guarantee no spoilers in this zone and below so God’s Speed my friends*

Did I enjoy this film?

Yes, on a basic level. The visuals were great, acting on point, the romance and action most thrilling…. However the storyline itself….? Honestly, the more I delve into the plot, the more points begin to jump out and irk me.

The Concept

I feel like nowadays everyone is at least familiar with the idea of leaving Earth for an alternative inhabitable planet in the future before we all start living on top of one another. Therefore for the ready-minded citizen, the idea and technologies of the story don’t seem too complex to understand.  Here we have a space ship of the future throwing itself lightyears from Earth which transforms itself from 120 years of suspended human animation to the equivalent of a luxurious cruise for the final 4 months of travel. And the period where the ENTIRE ship is sleeping? total ghost town.

Characters

Now Jim Preston is portrayed by Chris Pratt who although billed second to Jennifer Lawrence, stands as the protagonist of this film. Jim is shown from the beginning as a practical, engineeringly skilled man in search of a new life away from Earth. With simple morals and desires, he reminds me of nothing but an Aussie tradie searching for a quiet life and an attractive lass to settle down with after work each day. Jim lives for the lifestyle in which the ship and new planet promotes to potential investors in the seemingly ginormous capitalised organisation. He is therefore left nearly hopeless at his awakening 90 years prior to arrival. Pratt, undertaking a largely serious role on comparison to his past stints with Parks and Recreation and Guardians of the Galaxy, overall shines as our alpha-male frontman determined to fix the malfunctioning ship and save the 5000 lives on board. Opposite Chris, Jennifer Lawrence is Aurora, conveniently sharing a name with Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ who is awoken by Jim in his desperate need for human (particularly female) contact on the lonely ship. Jen, who we’ve now seen in a variety of roles is quite familiar with the futuristic ‘save the world’ setting in which she shines. And whilst she is not purely Jim’s helpless love interest, for once Jen takes a backseat as the almost supporting character role in the heroic tale. As a born-bred hunger games fan I find myself almost biased in my praise for Lawrence as an actor as her versatility in character, style, personality and raw emotion is next to limitless. I mean. she didnt get those Oscars for just throwing a costume on and showing up on set. Despite these talents though, you never see her overpowering Pratt, who strongly holds his own in this movie which, although from the sci-fi genre, truly paves a future for him in more serious upcoming roles.

Chris and Jens chemistry as a couple was pure fireworks. Some say you only need put 2 attractive people in a room together to really build the basic sparks of your fire but i completely disagree. Chemistry comes from deep within, a connection to ones own emotions as well as their characters and the ability to intertwine them with others. I believe that it is a true art form, a dedication to an actors work which should never be brushed off with something as basic as ‘looks’. The 2 frontliners who have many an experience with onscreen romance completely nailed the almost insecurity that comes from being one of only two people awake on an enormous vessel as well as the dependence that they develop on each other. brava.

The Set and Visuals

I think we can all agree that nothing’s worse sometimes than some bad CGI, which i saw nothing of in this film. Many of the scenes presumably filmed on green screen appeared crafted by Gods as the clean, sleek and fresh architecture of the future remained as such for the entirety of the film. From the Hibernation pods to the bedrooms and public spaces of the ship, the smooth modern touch of curves, mezzanines, illuminations and extremely basic colour schemes really took me into the future, joined by the new technologies of the plot. These aesthetic visuals recall images of brand new houses or cars, yet to be touched by the wear of humans and really emphasise the ‘new life’ that the many Passengers would soon be experiencing.

The Plot

I was on a mixed platter with the writing of this film. The physical script was great, funny, intelligent and hardly cringe. The futuristic technolgies and outerspace caastrophes always delivered asthe developed romance between the 2 lone passaengers did. But sometimes i just wasnt fully there with them.

As much as I hate to break it down like the ghost of english teachers past, every story must have a beginning, middle and end and every character must have objectives and actions to reason why exactly they do everything which is written. I feel like Passengers had a strong beginning and middle, a clear path and direction from where Jim wakes up and everything is explained to when he and Aurora fall in love and she discovers the classic character betrayal (predictable af right?). The middle to end however is where it gets uber messy. Jim’s objective in life is defined at a fresh start on the new planet where he is needed and he can build and grow. Aurora’s is quite different, putting her writing career first and travelling only to be able to write about her experiences and be appreciated back on Earth. These are clear and whilst not set in stone, need to be remembered.

As we near the end of the plot where Jim and Aurora whilst not on good terms must fight to save the ship, it is clear that their objectives seem to go out the window. All writers love a good heroic act and happy ending i know, but with audience predictability and confusability at its finest, sometimes it best to be realistic with the plot. After both characters commit heroic acts to save the lives of those on board and coincidentally save each others lives they simply just decide to grow old together on the space ship, righto. And I know its supposed to be cute and romantic and happy and im sorry but it’s just not believable, it is to me, the writer’s easy way out to an ‘enjoyable’ movie.

And just when you thought I was finished I would also like to tack on a small plot hole I found in the story. As the lovebirds develop their relationship, we see them running round participating in the complimentary activities of the ship from basketball to dance off’s. They also showed the ships passing of a nearby star where the couple marvels at its beauty as the ship voiceover announces its passing. But technically guys, they were all supposed to be asleep in their pods when they passed this particular phenomena so why on earth would it be programmed into the voiceovers in the first place? I understand that their being awake activated a lot of the services but there is really no need to prepare to view a star that nobody is going to be awake to see #plotholeeees.

In Summary:

Despite my finalising with plotholes and slight writing criticisms, I still thoroughly enjoyed watching Passengers. As a not too common sci fi watcher (beside the occasional doctor who binge) I found the films technologies to be easy to follow and understand and praised the art directions and set & costume designers for their simplistically elegant designs. Further praise also to the great acting from Jen and Chris who I will continue to place my faith in with future epics.