What a fantastic idea combining sci-fi space survival thriller with rom-com

Rating: 4/10 (23 February 2017)

Yep, Passengers is like 2 completely different films carelessly stitched together. It not only failed to add comedy to a serious space sci-fi survival premise, but also failed to even be a half-decent sci- fi movie, which is what it's supposed to be in the first place.
The space sci-fi portion is so formulaic that anyone who has watched a few movies or played a few video games of the genre can predict the entire plot at the very beginning without much effort, because Passengers utilized every single trope the writers could think of, from space mental illness to a few people fixing a vast spaceship to venting the reactor.
Moreover, Passengers blatantly copied very specific stylistic elements of movies/games of the genre. The opening is almost identical to Pandorum, the spaceship is the same as WALL-E's Axiom, the survival element is very similar to Alien and Dead Space minus the monsters, the infirmary med-pod is lifted directly from Prometheus, the sun slingshot scene reminds me of Sunshine, not to mention the bar from the Shinning. In addition, Laurence Fishburne may just be reference to Event Horizon. These were completely beyond "paying homage" as they are central to the movie's story, rather than a passing cameo or an innocuous Easter Egg hidden in the background.
All in all, Passengers packaged banal and trite spaceship sci-fi clichés with a romantic comedy and tried to pass it off as something fresh. Instead, they could have tried to bring some life into the trapped on a spaceship premise through a compelling story.