Passengers (2016), PG-13, ★★1/2

Sorry, Jennifer, I just did not want to be alone.

I was expecting for a trailer to this movie all year because of three reasons: I am a big science fiction fan and of Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, who are the two most charismatic actors out there and could potentially bring out some chemistry. But, I knew something was up when the trailer released real close to the expected movie release date because it was too soon and I knew they were going to promote the heck out of these two actors and also the genre. So, going into this, I was excited to maybe see another great sci-fi adventure with these two actors because of its genre momentum with the past sci-fi film, Arrival. This is a different type of sci-fi film because it is mostly a romantic film from a sci-fi angle and not the other way around. I have to say I enjoyed the movie for most part because of its two leads even though the movie is hampered by a thriller element and also its screenplay that needed some work. If they have fixed it, I think I would have liked it very much.

A starship named the Avalon is transporting 5,000 colonists to a planet called Homestead II that will take 120 years to travel as their destination. The colonists are placed into these hibernation pods throughout the journey until the ship crashes into a meteor causing a malfunction in the pods, alerting and waking up a passenger named Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), a mechanical engineer who was woken up 90 years early. After a year of isolation with only Arthur (Michael Sheen), a robotic bartender as company, he struggles into making a decision to have more company.

He searches for people to get along and finds Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), a beautiful writer in a  pod, and after he looks at her profile, Jim wakes her up manually. Initially, Jim says to Aurora that she woke up from hibernation because of a simultaneous malfunction. Aurora is worried and distraught that she will grow old and die before the Avalon reaches its destination, so she tries everything in her power to get back into the pod. She eventually accepts the situation and writes a book from her experiences and she and Jim grow close and eventually go on a date. However, after a year, as Jim gives a ring to Aurora, Aurora finds out the truth.

Uh oh!

I was actually liking this movie about 2/3s of the time even though the premise is a bit creepy at first but when I realized what Jim did to open Aurora's pod, it was the consequences of his actions that could have lead to other malfunctions. A chunk of the meteor is threatening the ship as it is overloading the power of the reactors but the writers had something going on if it explored a more psychological and ideal narrative. Instead, they dialed down into the aspect of inserting the action into the movie to service the plot and move it forward to make it more entertaining and not that relevant to the characters' situations. I wished the screenplay had been smarter so that Jim could be more vulnerable as to what he has done and could have been impacted by the ship breaking down than putting in a foreshadowed event to install the action that does not do much to the main chemistry.

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are both terrific in their roles as they individually express panic, worry and happiness in their characters and bring all of that emotion to their romantic chemistry and also working together while the ship is in peril. But, there is a flaw with one character as the person seems to contradict oneself as the truth is revealed as this person's feelings switched because of the unnecessary action to move the plot forward and to finish the script. I thought Michael Sheen was delightful as this seemingly robotic bartender that looks like the same bartender from The Shining from its production design.

Director Morten Tyldum has made a well-crafted visual sci-fi film from the production design, the effects and also some of the cinematography. I liked Thomas Newman's score very much in this as incorporates both the romance and the science fiction in a softer atmosphere than terrifying. But when the terror comes into play, it only comes to play to bring back the audience to be entertained and to incorporate some heft into the story. It explores real briefly regarding the psychology of living alone with someone else vs forcing someone to be the other's company. I wanted some more maturity in the script to explore that psychology. Instead, we have to be carried away with Pratt's and Lawrence's charm instead of the main story and not the complexity of the script because it is underwritten in addition to a weak ending. It is not a bad movie all around but it is essentially a cable watch to be entertained by the performances, chemistry and the visuals but somehow an underwritten script prevented the movie to becoming more than just ok.

**1/2