'You can't get so hung up on where you'd rather be, that you forget to make the most of where you are.'

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2017)

Writer Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, Doctor Strange, The Darkest Hour) wrote the story and script for this work to be directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game, Headhunters, Fallen Angels) and with the talent of Guy Hendrix Dyas as production designer and a massive crew in art direction PASSENGERS is a feast for the eyes – and a rather humanistic sci-fi love story.
A mammoth company offers people the opportunity to leave the Earth and live on a new colony called Homestead Colony. They are being transported on a space vessel called the Starship Avalon. The journey takes 120 years so the travelers and crew are kept in hibernation chambers while the ship flies on its own and are to be awakened just before they arrive. And when one passenger Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) awakens, he quizzically explores the ship and sees he's the only one awake, he discovers he woke up 90 years early. The only talking being is Arthur (Martin Sheen) the robot bartender. He tries unsuccessfully to reenter his hibernation pod and spends the next year alone, wandering the ship. He looks at the videos of the other passengers and is impressed with Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence). He has to decide if he should wake her up. Eventually he does and the two court and try to make the best of their time together. But then it dawns on them that something happened to the ship that made it wake Jim up. And they try to find out what it is. Further troubling is the awakening of one of the crew – Gus Mancuso (Lawrence Fishburne) who aids the in their trials. To say more would be a spoiler
The CGI effects are terrific, the story is more an honest love story than a sci-fi futuristic space adventure, but the film feels very long and soon the gorgeous visual effects become tiresome. Good performances from beautiful actors save the film.