Like a dubstep version of Clair de Lune

Rating: 7/10 (7 December 2018)

Passengers needs to be commended on some beautiful imagery and transcendent music by the ever-classy Thomas Newman (which actually makes the film a bit too whimsical in places where a deeper dramatic reading should occur). But the main problem is the movie feels like a Hollywood exec note-fest "move this part along faster," or "don't get too deep here" (a problem particularly noticeable in the film's second and third acts). Passengers could have been a first-rate film like Titanic but is stuck languishing in "decent Hollywood adventure/romance" almost entirely because of pacing problems. Because of that, I give it an even 7/10: it's worth a watch and is fun, but I wish it pushed just a little harder and gave us a classic.