On many movie reviewing sites, “Passengers”, featuring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, received subpar grades and was highly criticized as a flop. One of Rotten Tomatoes’ critics even went as far as to say, “Fixing the malfunctioning Avalon requires addressing the fundamental damage, but the film seems to argue that the same does not hold true for the human heart.” In spite of all the negative reviews, I have decided to review Passengers after having recently seen it for myself.
First of all, I would like to say that Passengers was one of the most entertaining movies I have seen in awhile! When I think of a watching movie, I focus on the entertainment value present in the movie. Strictly speaking of entertainment value, I would say that Passengers easily gets a 9/10 because Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence have amazing chemistry and play off of each other so well throughout the movie.
The characters in the movie were incredibly lovable and amazing. Jim (played by Chris Pratt), was the embodiment of your everyday handyman--both in regard to emotion and behavior. Aurora was played by Jennifer Lawrence and, well, basically that's all you need to know. If you have ever seen “Silver Linings Playbook”, you will understand what I mean. Lastly, Arthur, the robotic bartender (played by Martin Sheen), was the show stealer due to his incredible wit and human-like behaviors that allowed him to become a best friend to Aurora and Jim. In retrospect, however, the characters were not developed to the fullest extent that they could have been. But, the characters were still amazing and perfectly cast.
The last review aspect I am going to focus on is the plot. The basic plot of the film is that Jim is awoken from his hypobaric chamber many years prior to when he is supposed to be awakened, this mistake is due to system failure on the spaceship Avalon during its trek to Homestead II. Eventually, after a little over a year of being awake alone with nobody to talk to but Arthur, the amazing bartender, he decides to wake up the girl of his dreams, Aurora. They fall in love and have a blooming romance until Arthur spills the beans that Jim woke her up on purpose. Their love then takes a nose dive until the Avalon almost experiences total system failure and Jim risks his life to save the ship. He dies during the mission due to his space suit cracking and releasing oxygen, and Aurora then realizes she loves him--despite her infuriation with him dooming her to live the rest of her life on the ship. She goes out into space, brings him back into the ship, and revives him on the high-tech infirmary table, somehow restarting his heart. They then live happily ever after for the next however many years, until they die on the spaceship because they woke up way too early. The plot is where a lot of critics tried to nitpick the movie to death, as shown in the quote in the intro paragraph. Comments can be found here, if interested in the negative reviews. However, I loved the plot and am happy to tell you why.
Whether or not flaws exist in the plot line or character development, the movie details the moral quests humans experience in everyday life. It takes Jim over a year to wake up Aurora because he can’t decide if he should, since in doing so, he is essentially sentencing her to death since she would not ever make it to Homestead II. In many situations in life, we are faced with this decision of what is right or wrong when it comes to others’ lives. We face discussions on abortion, the death penalty, war, et cetera because the list goes on forever. Life is a moral, existential quest, and now more than ever our moral decisions affect whether people will live or die. A famous psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg, broke moral development and existentialism into 3 distinct stages. The stage where we base decisions on punishments, the stage where we base decisions on rules, and the stage where we base decisions on what we believe is right or wrong. The latter is called the post-conventional stage and is the stage that Kohlberg believes very few people reach. The beginning of the movie and some middle portions focus on Jim’s constant battles bouncing back and forth between these three stages of moral development, trying to figure out what he should or shouldn’t do. At the end of the day, he seems to favor the pre-conventional stage where he makes decisions based on punishment because if he didn’t wake up Aurora, he would be alone. However, this moral battle he has with himself is the outline and basis of every thing and every moral humans hold dear to their hearts. Jim’s battle is the heart and soul of every pro-life and pro-choice argument we hear about every day.
At the end of the movie, Aurora ends up forgiving Jim and they happily live out the rest of their lives together. People criticized this part of the movie because it is in juxtaposition to fixing the ship, saying that forgiveness can happen without fixing the underlying problem. However, I have two main points to fight against this criticism. First, there is no telling if Jim and Aurora had a talk about it or not or worked it out immediately after because it was the end of the movie and the director didn’t focus too heavily on it. Secondly, it is a complex discussion of love and how love works. The movie aims to show that true love cannot die. Yes, couples fall apart and are not meant to be together, or someone in a couple makes stupid decisions that makes the other never want to see them again. But, no matter what happens, the love (obviously) never disappears completely or dies. Just because something isn’t meant to be or it got messed up does not mean that the love isn’t still there. If you truly love someone, you always will, and the movie does an amazing job of showing this by the emotions Jennifer Lawrence experienced during the battle to save the ship.
Overall, I would give this movie a wonderful review--at least an 8.5/10 overall. When critics and overly pensive people go into movies, they focus on nitpicking and finding the flaws that exist instead of enjoying the movie for what it is. “Passengers” is a love story, centered around moral dilemmas, and filled with comedic genius--no matter how subtle it is. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence have amazing chemistry and the movie is above average in terms of its entertainment value. My challenge to critics and readers alike is to go into a movie to focus on the entertainment value, not the intricate details of plot and character development. Movies are entertainment for a reason, so have fun with them!
Verdict: I would DEFINITELY recommend “Passengers” to anyone and everyone.
