Bland, lazy and ultimately dumb.

Rating: 4/10 (2 January 2017)

When mechanic Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) awakes from his hibernation 90 years too early he needs to figure out why he is the only person aboard the Avalon — an intergalactic spacecraft heading towards new colonised planet Homestead II — that isn't still in cryosleep. A lonely year goes by before another passenger, novelist Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), wakes up. Together, with the dubious help of android bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen), they search for answers, all the while falling deeply in love. After the interesting first hour sets up the concept, builds the mystery and introduces the eminently likable central duo, the second half stumbles and splatters into a shockingly dull and unoriginal tale of, well, basically nothing. The script from Jon Spaihts expends all goodwill at an alarming rate as the unravelling plot takes us down the blandest and most uninspired rabbit hole imaginable, the biggest enigma being why in the world Pratt and Lawrence signed on for such a rote adventure. Worst of all, it gets dumb. Really, really dumb. And lazy. After emphasising over and over again how *insert machine/equipment/etc* can't possibly *insert problem/mishap/etc*, guess what? Turns out it can just because. A few gravity-loss scenes are impressive and showcase Norwegian director Morten Tyldum's capability with a big budget, however a couple of exterior sequences are strikingly similar to Gravity, which unfortunately only serves as a reminder of how inferior this film is within the genre. A frustratingly banal and unintelligent second half cements Passengers as one almighty missed opportunity. Disappointing.