"Passengers" Movie Review

Have you ever seen a film that you loved but you just couldn't say it was perfect although you were unsure why? That's my dilemma with Passengers, an almost perfect film that mixes romance with life-and-death situations. It's perhaps what you would get if you crossed Titanic with Gravity. Perhaps that's why I can't quite give it a perfect score: it's a little too much like other things rather than an original story.

The story begins with a slight explanation of what the ship is, how many people are aboard, and where they're headed. It's explained that the ship is on course for the planet Homestead II, which will serve as a new Earth. The 5,000 passengers on board are intended to colonize, explore, and repopulate humanity. But there's a problem. A system malfunction causes Jim Preston's "sleep chamber" to open too early. Jim, played by Chris Pratt, finds out that he was woken 90 years too early, which means if he can't find a way to fix the malfunction, he'll die before he ever sees the new world. After a year of no success, a new chamber is opened. Aurora, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is the one awakened and soon finds out Jim has a secret that affects both of them.

The film is brilliant. The story kept you interested at all times, the acting was wonderfully performed, and the chemistry between Pratt and Lawrence is some of the best we've seen on-screen since Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet first enchanted our hearts. Some might find it problematic that it borrows too many elements from other films to make one new one, and some might find it as beautiful as I do. Don't go in expecting an epic thriller as the trailers suggest. Passengers is first and foremost a love story and survival is secondary. In reality, survival should always come first. Then again, sometimes love is survival. I give the film a 3.5 out of 4.