Bland Non-Adventure

Rating: 4/10 (4 May 2017)

There were numerous viewings of trailers and TV spots for this movie that made itself out as a mystery, what is the cause of a passenger's hibernation to hatch early? Having no trust as what ridiculous Hollywood-style ending would make me groan, I voted down seeing it in the theatre. After seeing the rental DVD, I think the trailers and spots were deceptive as to what the movie was about. However, I may have been just dreaming up my own reaction to some flawed sci-fi films like "Sunshine", expecting the third act to be some extra-terrestrial mumbo jumbo, or like "Sunshine" some strange concoction of ghosts and monsters.
Well, it is all just a romance flick with two hot Hollywood stars and a decent sized CGI budget. Somewhere a cross between "Solaris" and "Wall-E", the first act also has a strange semblance to Jack Nicholson going crazy in "The Shining", complete with an obliging bartender. Chris Pratt thankfully acts like a normal person who is stranded on this isolated spaceship in the middle of nowhere. The film kept my attention as it dazzled with nice space scenery and cool spaceship design.
Once Jennifer Lawrence is brought into the mix, it is a little dull, as we watch them become romantic, in order to fulfill the target genre requirements. But it is all too mechanical, with zero chemistry between them. I was rooting for the talkative bartender to have some evil turn, but alas, he was stuck behind the bar. So no, this is not a thriller. I barely remember after the film was over that Laurence Fishburne makes a brief appearance. One might wonder if he was just a hallucination.
There are, thankfully, brief moments of tension. But they are not allowed to become to frightening because, you know, romance. Which is too bad since
Many spoilers ahead.
The ship temporarily loses gravity while Lawrence is in a swimming pool. To her horror, she is unable to gain any traction to escape the large bubble of water and is trapped inside. This could have been a much more heart pounding scene that risked the life of Lawrence, but resolves itself rather tamely. And there is another tense scene.
Pratt, trying to go back into hibernation, crawls inside the capsule, which seals him up. He soon realises that it isn't working, but now is trapped inside the capsule. Pratt begins to struggle to escape, with the tough machine staying shut. Pratt starts to struggle to breathe, and, oh he's OK folks.
The same goes for the big reveal about the cause of Pratt's hibernation machine malfunctioning. It really is nothing beyond the opening sequence in which the spaceship encounters a large barrage of asteroids, damaging the self- diagnostics.
And here again, the idea of a ghost in the machine, the gremlins that turn up with malfunctioning zoombas or whatever. These malfunctions could turn some of the artificial intelligence into rogues and lethal to our unwitting passengers.
Ah, so much blockbuster material left off the storyboards because Romance. Except, suitably, when Lawrence finds out she was woken on purpose by Pratt. All romance is now broken off. With only a hint of redemption as Pratt performs a selfless deed.
This film showed some mild science fiction elements. But with the potential for some weird space psychosis that could have worked it's way into the characters, instead all malfunctions are mild and infrequent. And Pratt ends up being too inert to create any tearjerker scenes at the end.
So no thrills, a few chills, bland romance cut short, and a boring bartender. Thumbs down.