Passengers
27/08/17 Filed in: DVD
Helen had seen Passengers at the cinema when it was released and thought I would enjoy it. So today we picked up the DVD.
After the success of Gravity I had become a bit wary of copy-cat films, but I must say that Passengers occupies an entirely different space - excuse the pun! However, like Gravity, for most of the time there are really only two people in it, Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Aurora Lane, and Chris Pratt as Jim Preston. Michael Sheen is also present as the android barkeeper, Arthur, while Laurence Fishburne makes a fairly brief appearance as the chief deck officer, Gus Mancuso.
The scenario is a futuristic space craft that is travelling to a remote colony carrying 5000 colonists and 258 crew members in suspended animation. The journey time is 120 years but 30 years into the trip a large asteroid isn't completely deflected by the ship's forward shield, causing a glitch in the systems that results in Jim's hibernation pod waking early. Confused he meanders around the ship looking for the other travellers, while the onboard support systems react with him as if the full journey has been completed. The truth quickly dawns on him and after a frantic search to find a way of re-entering hibernation, he becomes resigned to the fact that he will die on the way to Homestead II. He lets himself go and even contemplates suicide, but after seeing Aurora in her pod, and finding out about her, he becomes enamoured and starts to contemplate the idea of waking her. This he discusses with Arthur, who politely replies that the questions posed by Preston are not ones that you ask a computer.
It's not giving a great deal away to say that he ultimately wakes her, telling her that her pod had also malfunctioned. A friendship develops as Jim flirts with Aurora, each realising that they only have one another, and this eventually leads to a loving relationship. But sharing your thoughts with an android is never a good idea, as nuance isn't a strong point for an entity relying on artificial intelligence, and Arthur lets the cat out of the bag. To say that Aurora was displeased is the understatement of the century, any century.
But it turns out that there are bigger fish to fry. The asteroid impact did a lot more than wake up Jim. Vital systems have been gradually shutting down and the ship's sophisticated self-healing capabilities are becoming overwhelmed. Little things start to go wrong at first, but as time passes critical systems start to fail. Arthur, for example, gets very confused! And the sequence where Aurora is swimming in the rather unique swimming pool when the artificial gravity system fails is very cleverly simulated. Fortunately, if that's the right word, these system glitches have also awoken Gus Mancuso. His security clearance gives them access to what were previously restricted areas and allows a more informed assessment of the problems. It then becomes a race against time to fix them.
The imperative of survival melts the frostiness between Aurora and Jim, while Gus's erratic exit from hibernation has left his body in a severely compromised state. It's now all down to Aurora and Jim. The action sequences that follow start to mimic to some extent similar films of the genre, but they fit well with the story and there isn't that feeling of sameness that often devalues films that follow an earlier trail blazing original.
I expect you will assume that the two of them save the ship, as this is how Hollywood likes films to end. All I will say is that Aurora is presented with one final life-changing decision. And the ending is in some ways not an ending at all.
Critics seem to have been less happy with the film than audiences, judging by the Rotten Tomatoes 31%/63% split. One interesting criticism of the film was that it would have been far better if Aurora had awoken first, a thought that Jennifer Lawrence has apparently agreed with. A case of a woman having the power of life or death over a man, rather than the way it is in the film.
But it turns out that there are bigger fish to fry. The asteroid impact did a lot more than wake up Jim. Vital systems have been gradually shutting down and the ship's sophisticated self-healing capabilities are becoming overwhelmed. Little things start to go wrong at first, but as time passes critical systems start to fail. Arthur, for example, gets very confused! And the sequence where Aurora is swimming in the rather unique swimming pool when the artificial gravity system fails is very cleverly simulated. Fortunately, if that's the right word, these system glitches have also awoken Gus Mancuso. His security clearance gives them access to what were previously restricted areas and allows a more informed assessment of the problems. It then becomes a race against time to fix them.
The imperative of survival melts the frostiness between Aurora and Jim, while Gus's erratic exit from hibernation has left his body in a severely compromised state. It's now all down to Aurora and Jim. The action sequences that follow start to mimic to some extent similar films of the genre, but they fit well with the story and there isn't that feeling of sameness that often devalues films that follow an earlier trail blazing original.
I expect you will assume that the two of them save the ship, as this is how Hollywood likes films to end. All I will say is that Aurora is presented with one final life-changing decision. And the ending is in some ways not an ending at all.
Critics seem to have been less happy with the film than audiences, judging by the Rotten Tomatoes 31%/63% split. One interesting criticism of the film was that it would have been far better if Aurora had awoken first, a thought that Jennifer Lawrence has apparently agreed with. A case of a woman having the power of life or death over a man, rather than the way it is in the film.