A mesmerising exploration of how spaceflight might challenge our essential human drives

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2016)

The movie starts with stunning visuals of spaceflight and you find yourself aboard a breathtakingly realistic-looking Starship Avalon. Minutes later you follow Chris Pratt's captivating portrayal of a down-to-earth engineer Jim, finding his way through a first layer of the ship's futuristic intricacies. Add an impressive performance by Michael Sheen as an android and you're hooked on the potential on this movie. By the time that Jennifer Lawrence's charismatic performance, as an ambitious journalistic writer Aurora Lane, took the movie to yet another level of immersion, I became aware I was witnessing a completely original story that felt humanly as real as it gets in a movie theatre.
Besides the mesmerising chemistry between the two main protagonists, one of the thrills of this movie that stood out for me was that most of the scenarios they were facing were completely realistic, within the context of the story, even by our pre-futuristic spaceflight standards. This allowed me to deeply identify with both of their individual plights, and consequently to fully root for them to find some kind of positive outcome to the increasingly dramatic situation on the ship.
I won't reveal what the surprising twists are that make this movie unique and so fascinating to watch, but I can safely hint at what it is that tipped the scales for me regarding rating Passengers as high as a full 10/10.
Surely most of us here on IMDb love movies that are still percolating in our minds hours after we have left the movie theatre, and this is definitely one of those exceptional movies for me. Have you ever imagined how would your core human drives play out on a spaceflight during a long-term dramatic situation with uncertain outcomes for both awake and hibernated passengers? The excellent acting performances in this movie gave me a visceral experience of what I myself might be intensely struggling with if I were facing those same moral dilemmas that Jim and Aurora were trying to cope with. And I hope that the movie's beautifully delivered take-home message, a reminder of one of the essential building blocks of being truly alive, will stay with me for good.
As for the more technical filmmaking considerations, I have only spotted one very minor technical oversight, and realised, only upon later reflection, that there might have been one potential minor plot hole. That wouldn't make me budge from wanting to rate this film 10/10, if it weren't for what felt like a rushed story development at one or two points in the movie.
But what is a critical review of a film good to either a filmmaker or the audience if it doesn't take into account the reality of filmmaking? I know, from my practical experience with directing and editing on my filmmaking university course, how difficult it can be to make things flow in the edit, without losing momentum or stretching the story to unreasonable length. And so, taking this and all of the above into account, I feel that overall I can honestly give Passengers 10/10 rating for its original story, incredible production design and visual effects, great thought-provoking directing, and mesmerising performances.