I have been looking forward to seeing Passengers since I saw the first trailer months again and went to see the earliest showing I was able. I am very glad to say that this movie met my expectations and that I really enjoyed it. I was apprehensive a bit as when I am expecting good things from a movie I tend to be disappointed, but the acting abilities of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence were up to the challenge of keeping me engaged and enjoying this movie. I am sure it will become of the movie I watch on rotation in the upcoming years and I am already hoping that others will want to go see it as I want to see it again.
Passengers is a movie that takes places in the future on the space ship Avalon. Where 5000 passengers have been placed in sleep pods during their planned 120 year trip to a new planet which they will be colonizing. Thirty years into their journey the space ship experiences some problems and two space pods end up opening. These pods belong to engineer Jim Preston, played by Chris Pratt, and writer Aurora Lane, played by Jennifer Lawrence. The question is are they able to to come to terms with waking up early and dealing with malfunctions that are occurring within the ship? How will they handle being the only two people awake with ninety more years until the reach their destination. Also included in the cast are Arthur, played by Michael Sheen, and Gus, played by Lawrence Fishburne.
As this movie is dependent on a very small cast it is very important that all the characters are likable and able to hold up the movie, and I am happy to say that all of the cast were well selected and did a great job. I liked all of the characters and was able to follow the emotional journey of them. I like Pratt and Lawrence as actors and their ability to get me to care about them and what is going on makes the movie. There are many movies out there that are simplistic in plot, like this one, but where the main actor or actors cannot hold up the movie and are not able to make me care. There was great chemistry between Pratt and Lawrence and Sheen and Fishburne added a dynamic that helped the story along without taking away from the connection between the main two.
Although this movie is set in the vastness of space it is still very much character driven. The plot is very simplistic and not a lot happens but it is all about what is going on with the characters, both intra and inter personally. Although there were parts that were spoiled by knowing who was in the movie and seeing parts of the trailers that let me know certain key things were coming I still enjoyed the journey and wanting to see how things would play out. This is not a complex movie and it doesn't have any huge action sequences but it kept a good pace and it worked for me.
The CGI was good overall and I always love it when space is done in a way that looks gorgeous. This film was able to pull it off for me. Even the spaceship didn't look jarring and blended with the rest of the CGI. The only thing that looked obviously CGI was the zero g but this is something that few movies have been able to do well. It is hard to fake zero gravity realness for me, especially as I have seen footage of astronauts in real life zero g. It is hard to fake weightlessness and the hair is always wrong. However I enjoyed how they did the water. I didn't see this in 3D as I didn't want to wait for the later showing but think that this is one of the movies where it would be beneficial. My favorite way to use 3D is by things floating and seeing things far away in the distance, which as a space movie it has.
Overall there is nothing super special about the plot of this movie but it was enjoyable and kept me engaged throughout the whole thing. If you enjoy movies with good chemistry/ banter between the characters and that the plot keeps movie (although it is obvious and not complicated at all) it is worth seeing. Don't expect lots of action as this is not that kind of big budget movie.
My Rating: 3
No comments:
Post a Comment