Moderately Engaging SF Romance That Needed Darker Elements

Rating: 6/10 (31 December 2016)

The trailers to this film gives the impression that it's something of a weepy romance set aboard a spaceship . Guess what ? If nothing else at least the trailers are being relatively honest and to be honest I almost gave the movie a miss due to its predictable content , but decided to give it a chance to find it perhaps wasn't as predictable as I predicted it to be . Even so I still came away thinking it was a missed opportunity
Let me explain . The pivotal plot element of "Person waking up prematurely while in hyper-space" is not only a good one but had been done earlier in the first season of SPACE 1999 which led to one of the most shocking endings I have seen in a TV show . Here however it really only exists to set up a story which will involve two people falling in love . Hey don't report me for giving away the story because this is exactly what happens . To its credit PASSENGERS does include a couple of twists involving obsession , betrayal of sorts and redemption and being something of an angst ridden tortured poet myself I did find myself being swept along to a degree as to the character interaction between Jim and Aurora and more specifically as to if Jim will be found out
It's hardly the most complicated film of 2016 and I found myself wishing for a more complex and darker type of movie . As you can imagine - and imagination is in short supply from the Hollywood studios - you can't have this type of film without two good looking leads . The truth is Chris Pratt is maybe a little too handsome and hunky . How about a scenario where Jim is played by Robert Carlyle or Andy Serkis ? In other words someone who it's slightly difficult to fall in love with ? Love like life itself is a horrible , really horrible thing but not if it's featured in a Hollywood movie it seems