 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** A spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people has a malfunction in its sleep chambers. As a result, two passengers are awakened 90 years early. Storyline: The spaceship, Starship Avalon, in its 120-year voyage to a distant colony planet known as the "Homestead Colony" and transporting 5,258 people has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result one hibernation pod opens prematurely and the one person that awakes, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is stranded on the spaceship, still 90 years from his destination. Written by Eirini Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, March 14, 2017 In an ever-connected and "smaller" world that is supposedly bringing people closer together than ever before, it seems like stories of isolation, and the emotional consequences thereof, are becoming increasingly more popular. One of the genre's grandaddies is The Shining, a film to which Passengers gives a respectful nod that runs throughout the entire film. Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis explored the concept in Cast Away. But lately it's the Science Fiction (or Science Fact, as the case may be with some of them) genre that's taken the reigns and taken charge of telling stories not only about living alone, but exploring the repercussions thereof. Oblivion, The Martian, and Moon have, in recent years, placed man much farther away from others, the former taking on a more action-heavy approach and the latter two more impactful, and better, films that take the focus away from guns and special effects and find greater purpose in their more dramatically oriented approaches. The genre seems a natural fit, allowing the exploration of concepts and environments and physical challenges to which the audience cannot easily relate to add greater tension while at the same time digging into the core human condition that translates no matter the time or place, be it in an isolated hotel or island, a nearby celestial body, or in deep space some decades or maybe even centuries into the future. Passengers pits two laymen, essentially, against the scale, scope, technology, and fundamental emotional turmoil of operating and maintaining a deep space cruiser, akin to taking today's average guy off the street and tasking him to to do the same onboard a space shuttle. It's not easy (although de facto cavemen have been known to pilot Harriers in battle against an advanced alien civilization, so maybe anything is possible). Passengers certainly doesn't live up to the character building and problem solving excellence of The Martian or the hefty dramatic impact and beautifully balanced complexity-simplicity of Moon, but it's a mostly enjoyable time killer that demands some suspension of disbelief and that plays with a bit of romance and excitement amidst an almost painfully predictable plot. The starship Avalon is traveling at half the speed of light to the planet Homestead II, an Earth-like planet where humans go to begin anew. The voyage takes well over a century. The crew of 258 and 5,000 passengers make the journey in suspended animation. The ship runs on autopilot and her forward shields deflect any interstellar debris in her way. But while she's maneuvering through a dense asteroid field, one rock gets through. Systems malfunction and a single stasis pod opens. Inside that pod is Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), a passenger who is a homebuilder, not a starship technician. It doesn't take long for him to realize that he shouldn't be awake. He has access only to the ship's most basic functions, recreational areas, and simple meals. He learns that he's awoken 90 years early, and even a message to Earth and back will take more than half-a-century. He begins to take his situation in stride, enjoying the luxuries and facilities the massive vessel has on offer. He befriends an android bartender (Michael Sheen), but when the hopelessness of his situation truly takes hold, he sinks into an ever-deepening depression that leaves him with precious few alternatives or reasons to continue on living. It's almost a shame that Passengers' promotional materials reveal that someone joins Chris Pratt's character at some point in the movie, but A) it's Jennifer Lawrence, so can't keep her hidden, and B) because the movie starts out really well. Why she awakens some time after him isn't hard to figure out, but it is a key plot point and part of the motivational character exploration that's amongst the film's finest assets, along with its sleek production design. Passengers tries to walk that very fine line between contemplative and entertaining while also trying to sort out the balance between physical emptiness and inner turmoil. It goes through all of the usual permutations. Pratt's Jim awakens confused, tries to sort out what's happening, accepts his fate and has fun with the time alone, falls into depression, and the movie continues on with a dearth of dramatic surprise after that. It certainly has one or two tricks up its sleeve, but for the most part it's a painfully predictable film that seeks out a satisfying, if not standard, exploration of the human condition both in challenge and in love, but all of the moving parts are stock and lack any real interest. For every action there's very little surprise. When problems arise, it's always clear how they will all play out. Passengers relies on simple dramatic movie tropes to build tension, erasing much of the goodwill from its excellent first act and lowering the film from "compelling" to "crude" but playing just well enough, and the ancillary things like performances and production values holding it up, to make for a decent watching experience. When Aurora eventually joins Jim, she experiences the same emotional ebbs and flows as he: confusion turns to panic turns to acceptance turns to fun turns to depression. If one is the loneliest number, it definitely has company with two. In some ways, the second act is a straight rehash of the first, with Jim basically serving as a guide, almost like a new parent watching over a child who has to learn life for herself and finds reinforcement, not hand-holding, from her parent figure. So the first act is a magical exploration of sleek new technology and the human response to prolonged isolation. The second act is much the same, with a burgeoning relationship thrown in. But that notion that Aurora is going to discover why she is awake looms over the movie, and it's hard to watch the build-up knowing that that's coming. But the film's saving grace, to a point, is that it's so good at having fun with the idea, and exploring its ramifications, and building up their relationship that the inevitable is often far from the audience's mind. The core concept and gorgeous production design draws attention away from the obvious. But once the obvious happens, the movie loses much of its momentum and, even as there are a couple of surprises waiting in the final act or so, all of the actions play out so predictably that, by the end, it's hard to remember just how strong the movie began. Passengers is a good movie that offers an interesting proposition: it demands that the audience both engage the brain and leave the brain at the door. There's some very good exploration here, a fairly deep analysis of the human condition in isolation in its opening act. Act two is much of the same with a big, obvious turning point looming large, and act three is the usual action-oriented turn that's well staged but so predictable it's practically boring and all but erases the first act's excellence from the audience's mind. Still, Passengers makes for a decent watch and a movie that could have been spectacular had the writers let the creative juices flow a bit more freely. Sony's Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and UHD combo pack offers the best of all worlds. The UHD disc is the standout with the best video and audio of the bunch. The 3D presentation adds some interesting spacial awareness to the movie (shame it wasn't paired with the more spacious Atmos soundtrack), and the Blu-ray is the nuts-and-bolts inclusion and home to all of the supplements. Recommended. [CSW] -3.3- If you're watching for an action sci-fi movie, you'll be disappointed because this one is a very good character study of how people would react when placed in a situation of being completely alone the way mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Prat) finds himself. What would you do in Jim's place, even though we already know what his decision was? Once Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) enters the picture, you get a second and very poignant dynamic instead of a routine love story -- although that's there later on. The sets are fantastic; I even thought of adding this film to my library just for their eye candy. And when you finally do get to the action sequences, they are very good. [V5.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box [Show Spoiler] Cast Notes: Jennifer Lawrence (Aurora Lane), Chris Pratt (Jim Preston), Michael Sheen (Arthur), Laurence Fishburne (Gus Mancuso), Andy Garcia (Captain Norris), Vince Foster (Executive Officer), Kara Flowers (Communications Officer), Conor Brophy (Crew Member), Julee Cerda (Instructor [Hologram]), Aurora Perrineau (Best Friend), Lauren Farmer (Party Friend), Emerald Mayne (Party Friend), Kristin Brock (Party Friend), Tom Ferrari (Party Friend), Quansae Rutledge (Party Friend). IMDb Rating (06/11/17): 7.0/10 from 200,289 users
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