Haters gonna hate, but moviegoers have plenty to enjoy here

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2016)

I don't quite get all the hate that this film gets... I can also think of great number of recent alleged sci-fi films that don't deserve a minute of one's time, yet they are cherished and loved.
In any case, I went to see Passengers with high expectations. While I am not a fan of either Jennifer Lawrence or Chris Pratt, they were very good in this film - good enough to immerse me in the story (unlike most other alleged sci-films these days). I've been a fan of Michael Sheen ever since I saw him in Midnight in Paris where he was brilliant also, and his performance in Passengers was so good that it is easy to forget that this synthetic robot with a plastic smile is brought to you by a thespian. What a performance! Worth seeing just for that alone.
The story is by now well known, due to spoilers being given away like candy during Halloween and partly due to (leaked?) script that was posted a while ago. Most importantly: the film has been changed from the original script and for the better.
The thing that I liked about this film is that first of all - it is not stupid. I did not have to put an extra effort to suspend my disbelief the way I had to for most recent sci-fi favorites (except Martian which I liked). Yes there may be one or two occasions when I knew that "such would be almost impossible" but even then, there is also an option that the situation had something that we, the viewers may not be aware of. For instance, the sudden loss of gravity would require sudden stopping of the rotation of the ship; that would require enormous amount of energy, otherwise things don't just stop in space. But, who knows - maybe the ship did decide to stop the rotation? So not entirely impossible (this is not a spoiler because the official trailer clearly suggests loss of gravity).
The drama of the film is obviously based on the fact that two passengers woke up too early during their cross-universe trip. No matter what you think of the morality of how that all happened, remember this is a film and not televangelism. In other words: there is no space for political correctness in character portrayal.
In the end, I can say that there was plenty to enjoy in this film, from excellent visuals to great performances all around. I actually plan to buy this in bluray, which I don't do that often with new movies (my library of recent films includes "Argo", "Dallas Buyers Club", "Midnight in Paris"...) If you are expecting another marvel-comic inspired super-hero driven FX fest, you will be disappointed. No iron-men or spider-men or any other mutants in here. Just your plain simple ordinary humans with all their shortcomings.
But if you are looking for an interesting story, with an interesting premise, and no cringe-worthy "even kids know this is impossible" moments, than this is for you.
ps. I loved the attention to detail which translated to some really cute and funny scenes...