Got aboard the star ship Avalon the other night, and Phew! Morten Tyldum’s film has Jim Preston (Chris Patt), waking a bit too early and getting out of his hibernation pod, only to realize that a whopping ninety years are left in the 120 year long journey to the planet Homestead II, where the ship is headed for.
Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) is woken up from another hibernation pod by Jim, who cannot bear the isolation any more. There is the Android robot bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen), and Gus (Lawrence Fishburne), the Chief Deck Officer, who complete the character chart.
This is a plot that tries hard to overcome some very basic flaws, and even intermittently shows signs of doing so. But very rarely does it manage to crawl over the highly stilted dialogues or the very troubling question deep, deep down if Jim’s action is one that merits an applause.
I am all for both Lawrence and Patt really, and they still remain the sole (twin rather) reasons why I have been through this time travel saga and back. ‘Passengers’ is also a stringent reminder of how different some films turn out to be from their trailers, and how disappointing it then turns out to be!
Verdict: Disappointing