Passengers of Life

Rating: 8/10 (12 February 2017)

Previously, it seems strange to me that a well-made picture like Passengers has an average rating of only 7.0. Later, however, it comes to me that maybe many people who went to the cinema were expecting a marvelous science fiction film but eventually come to find a typical romance instead. In passengers, though high-tech future elements can be seen anywhere, they are mainly used to support the love story the movie wants to convey, not to provoke dramatic intensity and visual effects as normal sci-fi movies do. And so if you are looking for something rather tense and incredible, the film might not satisfy you enough, for the story is told in a slow pace and the highlight around the end is a little roughly-arranged. But on the other hand, Passengers has reached high in telling a romantic story and has also brought out thinking and arguments about humanity and attitudes towards life.
Space movies are sci-fi films set in a particular environment: outer space, which always provides the films with potential advantages. They include: infinity in setting the background's scale, great convenience in testing humanity under extreme circumstances such as facing the unknown, and sometimes, expense saving by hiring only a few actors and actresses. Generally speaking, Passengers has made full use of many of these potentials to make itself worth viewing and thinking. It has had its background set on a lonely spaceship traveling in the void, providing a single concentrated scene, to tell clear and straight a fascinating story about no more than two main characters. Such a genius idea that supports the film has also enabled some thinking on the two characters' different attitudes and decisions towards their fate and destiny.
Apart from a brilliant idea, there are, of course, other contributing factors that has made the movie come to life. Firstly, I must say the acting of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence is really great. Pratt expressed strongly the character's sense of loneliness at particular scenes, while Lawrence stroke me hard in acting extreme emotions such as hatred, despair and eagerness (I actually recall seeing similar vivid acting in other films with Lawrence playing a role such as The Hunger Games series as well). Besides, the visual effects of the film is beautiful, which has definitely added more flavor to the already beautiful story. The music written for the picture is also worth praising too, although I'm a little surprised it is so great as to get the Oscar nomination.
As mentioned above, Passengers may not have done so well as a science fiction film. But I think it truly has achieved something in telling a love story. We have already seen countless romance films which consists little more than a boy and a girl come to a kiss after a series of things happen. If such plain and simple love stories with few details and never-changing happy endings were once popular, they can hardly surprise us any more nowadays. Because with the development of modern movies, we are asking something more besides two good-looking people come together. We are asking questions like: What happened next? How their individuality affected their relationship? What's their understanding of love?
Good romance films are seeking the answers, and trying to give complete new angles of telling romantic stories. One way of doing so, some find, is to extend the perspective of love from the traditional honeymoon period to the entire life of the ones in love. Passengers, among some others like The Titanic (1997) , Up (2009) and About Time (2013) have looked into this method of story- telling, and many of them reached tremendous effect. They carry the theme that love consists not only a rush, a glance, a touch, a dance. Love is Life. (Please allow me to quote from the song 'City of Stars' without thinking it lower than any others) In Passengers, by illustrating opinions of life from the characters' view, it has shared its unique perspective of love with accuracy.
*** Some friends may consider the lines below spoilers ***
In the end, I would like to add another quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's master piece 'The Little Prince', which I think suits the main idea of the film pretty well:
People on the train are pursuing nothing at all. They are asleep in there, or if they are not asleep they are yawning. Only the children are flattening their noses against the windowpanes.
We are all passengers of life. Besides chasing a destination, there are so many wonders on the way for us to stop by. If the ultimate goal is so far to reach, we can still make a meaningful path by enjoying every bit of the day.