The most horrible tragedy imaginable.until

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2016)

"Passengers" can be neatly divided into three acts. My summary line pertains to Act 1. We witness Jim (Chris Pratt), a mechanical engineer by profession, waking up in a 120-year hibernation-pod flight in the 5000-passenger Avalon, to colonize Homestead II, seeking a new life away from overcrowded Earth. The problem is, he wakes up at year 30 due to a system malfunction. He is now looking at the horrible fate of living alone and dying alone on this colossus space vehicle. The solitude is tragic, no matter how opulent the surroundings might be (it is intended that the passengers will be awaken four months before arrival and enjoy a luxurious life prior to commencing their new adventure on Homestead II). Yes, he can communicate with Earth back home. A message takes 19 years to get there and it would take another 55 years for responses, if any, to come back. (Be thankful, folks, for your WhatsApp). Oh yes, he has one human-like companion, a droid bartender Arthur (an amusing Michael Sheen). No wonder he contemplates opening the exit to go out into space WITHOUT wearing a space suit. He pulls his hand back from the switch in the last minute and continues his existence in Avalon for over a year, until Act 2.
The second act is a love story that has been compared to "Titanic". Jim is enchanted by the beauty and impressed by the bio (easily accessible in Avalon's electronic files) of a fellow passenger Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence). After an agonizing moral struggle, he wakes her up without telling her, of course, that he did so. She goes through the same initial confusion and struggle but also empathizes with his predicament of enduring the ordeal for over a year all by himself. Before I get to the romance part, let me explain the Titanic reference. Put it simply, Jim is in economy class while Aurora is in first class. Jim is a total stranger, at least initially. He does not hurry things and the romance comes gradually and naturally. The trigger point is when Jim takes Aurora through the wonders of experiencing the splendour of space from outside Avalon. That scene brings to mind Christopher Reeve taking Margot Kidder on her first flight in "Superman" (1978). I can almost hear the mesmerizing melody of "Can you read my mind" in my head.
Romance aside, there is one scene in this Act 2 which provides some meat to chew on. Aurora is a writer who, unlike everybody else, has bought a round-trip ticket, intending to stay in Homestead II for just a year. Yes, by the time she gets back to Earth, 250 years would have passed since she left. But as long as there are still human beings who can read, there is nothing to prevent her from writing the perhaps most brilliant book in human history. The scene I am referring to is where Aurora "interviews" Jim, asking him what drove him to embark on this adventure.
Act 3, unfortunately deteriorates into a banal space thriller. First, Arthur spills the beans to Aurora about Jim being responsible for waking her up. You don't need anybody to tell you her reaction. Next comes a series of malfunctions starting with doors and vending machines and on to a hibernation pod waking up another individual. This time it is a crew member, very senior in rank too, Gus, played by Laurence Fishburne. His fans however will be disappointed because Gus is not much more than a plot device, to advance the storyline. He is already seriously ill when he is awakened. After finding out and explaining to them the problem Avalon is facing, he dies. Jim and Aurora are alone again, with the unenviable task of trying to save the 5000 passengers from an imminent explosion. While they may still die of old age on board, the remaining 4998, plus some 200 crew members, can carry on after arriving safely at Homestead II.
There is more but I'll keep the final spoilers.
"Passengers" to-date has received an IMDb user rating of 7.0, which is a pretty fair indication: a reasonably good movie but not particularly brilliant.