Passengers - A Re-imagined Sleeping Beauty

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2017)

This film was certainly different to anything I'd ever seen before. Set in space - brilliant. Good looking guy doing some heavy lifting - why not. Beautiful girl lying down, unmoving - isn't that how we all like our women? A threat to thousands of unsuspecting, very unhelpful people - if you don't have that, do you even have a movie? As you can see all very unique and completely new aspects of film-making, really pushing the film industry in a new direction. Opening minds. Broadening horizons.
You may have heard of some of our main mans films, Bride Wars, Jennifer's Body, Five-Year Engagement, and his most famous part to date, a little television series, that I believe picked up quite a following, known simply as Parks and Recreation. Christ Pratt may seem a like a foreign name to you now, but mark my words young children, this man could be something, if only some movie director would give him a chance, in say a Marvel superhero movie. But hey, that's just my uneducated opinion.
The unmoving girl referred to earlier, is played by that chick who, I want to say, was in that movie where everyone had to kill each other? The one with all the weapons. You know which one I'm talking about. It was directed by Quentin Tarentino? No? Then she was definitely in that film with the guy who was in The Godfather and that other guy who was in those stupid Hangover movies. (Speaking of the Hangover movies, if you haven't seen Obama on Between Two Ferns pop onto The Youtube and educate yourself.) You know the one I'm talking about. He's always in all those Jennifer Lawrence films. Argh, for the life of me, I just can't seem to think of her name.
Moving right along then. I'm surprised more people haven't caught on that Passengers is basically a re-imagined Sleeping Beauty. Aurora (Lawrence) is woken up by Jim (Pratt), and they are hurtling through space at horrific speeds upon the spaceship, Avalon, a name for a Disney kingdom if ever I heard one, and a kingdom they sure do make. The catalyst that sends them on their journey to save the entire unsuspecting, still sleeping, inhabitants of the ship should've been named Maleficent. Even though it's portrayal of the evil fairy wasn't nearly as good as Angelina Jolie's, at least it gave it the good old college try.
The character development throughout the film was a bit so-so, even though the whole time Pratt and Lawrence's characters were playing out their love story I couldn't help thinking; 'But he's with Anna Farris! That makes him unqualified to be with her.' (See what I did there? Do you see it?)
You do however, get to see the motive behind their reasoning for being on the ship, and the film does introduce some interesting prospects of the future for the human race. And even though the differences and struggles between classes is played in a humorous light, it does however, suggest that perhaps we, as a species, will always struggle with class hierarchy and the implications that money brings into the conversation of class structure and entitlements. Or perhaps, like a high-school English teacher, I'm reading too much into it and the references to differences in class is simply to make it more relatable to the intended audience.
The supporting acts were played brilliantly, especially the robot barman, Arthur, whose brilliant conversation drove the film when it could very easily have been quite boring. The question left to ask is: where do I get myself one of those?
The film was throwing the popcorn in the general direction of your mouth and missing good. The suspense really had you on the edge of your seat, and the love story and following conflict between such a small central cast was displayed brilliantly and certainly showed off each actors ability to lie to large audiences. And don't even get me started on the cinematography. It was vastly, brilliantly and universally wonderful. Pun most definitely intended.