A very pleasant movie

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2016)

This was a very entertaining movie which would have been much less enjoyable if I had been exposed to spoilers. A number of posters have raised the moral issue of the Chris Pratt character waking up Aurora 90 years early. Clearly, this was a wrong and selfish thing to have done. Certainly not as a justification for his actions, it would appear that if he had not done so, all 5000 passengers and 238 crew members would have been lost. While Preston's actions were morally wrong and selfish, they were never what could be described as being malevolent. This wrong was an essential plot element which was necessary to eventually bring out the forgiving aspects of the Aurora character. Pratt's actions were essential for the movie. Aurora comes to see Pratt's actions as being at least understandable as she became close to the identical situation of being left alone whilst James exits the ship to save everyone at the risk of his own life. This is a moral choice that also needs to be considered, but is not as obvious as the initial moral wrong. In the end James has given her a chance for a life. For me, I would have written an ending that found them both curled up together arriving safe in the AutoDoc.
For me the plot of this movie is similar to a Twilight Zone episode where two people meet and fall in love just before the male's departure into space in a hibernated state for 50 years. Knowing that his love will be old when he returns he awakens himself early and spends 50 years alone in space so as to be the same age as his love when he returns. Ironically, thinking that she will be old when he returns, she has herself "hibernated" for 50 years. Do you see an O'Henry influence here? Female played by that wonderful actress Mariette Hartley.