Mini-Review: Passengers (2016)

I'm hoping to get more reviews out by doing this mini-review format. If I want to go into actual depth on this movie I'll do so via multi-vlog reviews or other posts.

In this review of Passengers there will be spoilers. So if you haven't seen the movie stop reading now and go see it before continuing.

The Two Leads

Chris Pratt, who plays Jim Preston in the film, does a great job before Jennifer Lawrence shows up. It does show the skill of an actor when they can give good performances with no one to bounce off of . Though saying he has no one else in his scenes before Aurora wakes up is lying as there is Arthur the bartender android.

However, the majority of what happens before Aurora wakes up focuses on Jim. Such as when he plays basketball alone or eats alone or dances alone ect.

While Aurora Lane, played by Jennifer Lawrence, doesn't have a choice in being woken up that doesn't stop her from being a strong character. When she finds out that Jim woke her up and it wasn't an accident, well...trying to murder him at one point is a short way of putting how she felt.

Just because a person or character is forced into a situation, that doesn't mean they are weak. It is all about how they handle it and by the end of the movie Aurora has come to terms with her new reality. She ends up forgiving Jim and decides to spend the rest of her life with him.

Yep, she was able to decide whether to go back into hibernation or not by the end of the film.

Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence do an excellent job in holding this movie up. They manage to create compelling characters that you care about. While the ending hasn't been taken too well, I felt for the characters and was glad both managed to make it out of the movie alive.

Malfunctioning Ship

Act 3 of Passengers is when the ship Avalon starts to truly break apart. In Acts 1 and 2 it was slowly starting to malfunction. Little signs that Jim picked up on but didn't think too much of. He was already having to cope with the dreaded isolation he had been dealing with since waking up.
And after he woke up Aurora...yeah....the good and bad parts of love distracted him even further. All he could deal with was what was right in front of him.

I guess a reason I didn't mind the ending was that it was exciting and didn't come out of nowhere. We finally get a reason for why things were falling apart. It also showed the growth between Aurora and Jim.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) was great until the ending. The problem with that movie's ending was that it erased everything that was built up until then. And, no, I'm not referring to time travel being involved. Time travel, if done correctly, can leave an impact even if timelines are changed.

The ending to Passengers, however, isn't too different from the rest of the film.

Arthur is the first "person" Jim sees upon waking up and is the only one he can talk to for around a year. He ends up becoming a good friend to both Jim and Aurora as time goes on. So when the Avalon starts to malfunction at the end of Passengers, it's sad when he starts to hurt himself.

The scene was in the trailer but...when you actually get to know him it's much more meaningful.

Why People Travel to Homestead 2

Jim didn't get on the Avalon and leave everything he knew behind because he was bored. We never get to learn what the Earth in the Passengers universe is like except for Jim's reason for going to Homestead II.

His reason was that Earth was getting too stagnant and he liked to constantly have projects. Traveling to a colony world would offer him more than a few opportunities. His reason for going to the colony planet also explains why he isn't able to have a decent meal until Aurora wakes up.

Aurora's reason for going to Homestead II is to get a good story. She believes if she goes to the colony planet and then goes back to Earth that she'll have a story that no one else has. While that does sound selfish there is also a little bit of heart to it. She was inspired into writing because of her father and is looking to be like him. She never has had anything truly exciting happen to her so she decides to seek out an exclusive story.

While watching a video from her friends on Earth, one of them remarks that Aurora never seemed to belong on her home planet. So there might also be a deeper reason for Aurora leaving Earth and then her refusal to go back into hibernation.

Rating: 4/5

Additional Notes:
*Aurora is Sleeping Beauty's name
*There was no reason for feminists to get all wound up, Aurora was a good character
*This film is a good look at isolation and what it does to people
*Jim tries to commit suicide in the film