At about the half way point of “Passengers”, Chris Pratt’s character asks the party favorite, “what would you do on a desert island”? His question though isn’t wondering what one record you would want with you, but something much more deep. With that statement you might think you would be in store for a lot of mind blowing “what does it all mean” questions, but you would be mistaken. Instead what you get is a lot of emptiness, but don’t worry that emptiness looks pretty good.
When you travel though space one thing past movies has taught us is that accidents happen. Well guess what, an accident happens, and the result of it is Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) being wakened up about ninety years too early from his cryo-sleep. Jim though is the only one awake, and after figuring out what is ahead oh him, Jim drifts far from his happy place. Jim wonders around, eventually finding an AI bartender, who becomes his best friend. The problem is that his newfound friend is not human, and what Jim longs for is someone to share his doomed trip with. He thinks he found her in Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), but there is one problem, she is still asleep. After much deliberating, Jim decides to wake up Aurora, but of course not tell her that was what happened. Soon they are taking over the ship and falling in love, I mean after all they are the only ones awake. Jim’s odds soon turn against him, when Aurora finds out the truth, but when the ship starts having problems; they have bigger fish to fry than relationship problems.
This is not really something new you are seeing here, the only difference is there is no one to yell “ Iceberg straight ahead.” Baring countless similarities to “Titanic”, including two very good-looking leads, it only varies from the path slightly. The world and everything in it is beautiful, but this is the classic “it’s what on the inside that counts.” The world is a wonder to look at, the story though leaves a lot to desire. Written by Jon Spaihts, (Prometheus), he gives us a story with very little substance. It reminded me of one of those concept cars, while pretty on the outside, there is very little working internally. The world and what is in it almost feels like it was made so easy on the eyes to mask the films faults. Sure Pratt and Lawrence do thier best, but like in life, looks can only take you so far. It’s hard to knock on “Passengers” visuals, because they do look so great, but that is all it has going for it, as the story has been told before and done better. I wanted to enjoy this movie, but instead I left feeling like I wasted two hours of my life. Having so many choices this time of year, this is one flight you should sleep through.
