*MAJOR SPOILERS*
Okay, this is our first Movie of the Year review on theVade. After 13 months of following this film, I’m excited to finally see this movie and review it. So lets get on with the review!
Passengers is a 2016 sci-fi/drama film directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Jon Spaihts. The film stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as two passengers on a spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet. During the transport of thousands of people, two sleep chambers malfunction and result in two passengers waking up 60 years early.
So Passengers was and interesting film for me to review. I had been so excited for film until the moment Sony dropped the first trailer. There was nothing wrong with the trailer, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. After numerous delays and a horrible marketing team, Passengers finally came to fruition. Now the reason I chose this as my Movie of the Year is for one major reason. The screenplay. So many people were raving about this screenplay, and I was extremely excited to see what this film would do with it. I’ve had the original script since day one, and wanted to see the movie before reading it. As of now I have only read pieces of the script, and I will say it’s pretty close to the same product we saw on the big screen. Overall, I was happy with the final product. Was I happy with this as my Movie of the Year choice? Eh, not so much.
So Passengers had a lot going for it. One of the more entertaining aspects of this film had to be its actors and characters. Chris Pratt was absolutely fantastic in this film. His character Jim is incredibly relatable, and he provides great comic relief when necessary. I felt a true connection between him and the audience, and although I felt great chemistry between him and Jennifer Lawrence’s character, her acting threw me off a little. I’m not stating it was bad, but at times I felt it was way too dramatic. Sure the script called for it, but I just didn’t feel emotionally invested in her. As much as I hate her, I think Shailene Woodley would have been perfect for this role. Nothing against Lawrence or her acting, I just felt like she wasn’t right for this role.
Other than characters and the actors that played them, the story was also a strength for this film.. at times. The first act of this film was great, as It almost felt like a modern day Castaway in space. The chemistry between Pratt and Michael Sheen is hilarious at times, as it almost has the same value as Tom Hanks’ Wilson the volleyball. After that first act when Pratt wakes up Lawrence’s character, I felt the story began to slow down. Sure we had some great scenes with her and Pratt, but as soon as the secret is revealed that he woke her up, I felt like the story came to a complete stop. Like I mentioned before, the second act felt way too dramatic, and really took away from the enjoyment of the film. The third act felt kind of the same way, but still didn’t pick up much. The third act’s plot points felt weak and unrealistic, and I guess that’s what really turned me off from loving this film. You can blame the slowness of the second act on Lawrence, but the weakness of the third act is 100% due to the fault of the screenplay.
I guess that’s what I didn’t enjoy about this film. The casting of Lawrence and her overly dramatic performance, and the second and third act of this film. But what I felt this film really could have improved upon is its screen time. This movie didn’t even hit the two hour mark, and yet it could have been so much better if they expanded on the story with another thirty minutes of screen time. So much could have been added to help add to Lawrence’s character, as well as more story and exposition in the third act. One of my biggest issues with this film was the ending. There is no closure, and leaves such a bad taste in the audience’s mouth. It’s almost as if they wanted the audience to interpret the ending for themselves, but it just doesn’t make sense. Other than the acting, screen time, scientific inaccuracies, and anticlimactic ending, this film didn’t have too much I didn’t like.
So in the end, after thirteen months, horrible marketing techniques, and numerous issues within the film, Passengers ended up being a good movie in 2016 yet not the best movie of 2016. So with that I decided to give Passengers a “Good” on theVade Review Bar. With so much going for it, I felt like what I looked forward to the most about this film (the screenplay), ultimately turned out to be what I didn’t enjoy the most about this film. So let’s hope next year’s film will be the best film of 2017 and a true movie of the year.
