Saturday 7 January 2017

Passengers

This is already controversial, largely because of a misrepresentative advertising campaign that, perhaps understandably since both Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are young attractive movie stars, concentrates on the chemistry between them and the space adventures they have together on a generational starship that will take 100-odd years to reach its destination (where both of them are awoken 60 years too soon).

Of course, it's a little bit more complicated than that, as Pratt is initially the only one awoken - about a year into his isolation, sliding into insanity, Pratt makes the decision, knowing what it means to rob 60 years of her life, to wake Lawrence up. It's odd that this is the choice that's made - the producers know that Lawrence is the bigger star - they paid her more, she's been in more hit movies than Pratt (admittedly most of them had the words "Hunger Games" attached), but still, the female character can't be the one to make the discoveries, she has to be the one to be led through the film by a bloke. He's given a more pro-active occupation (engineer) as opposed to her journalism, which aforethought the film never produces anything except that he likes reading what she writes - she's not, apparently, a particularly investigative journalist...

Look, this is not hideous. Pratt and Lawrence have a nice sparky chemistry when the plot gets out of the way, the effects look nice, and both young stars also get a chance to show off their bodies (Pratt airs his butt twice, Lawrence spends some time in a bikini). But there's a better film that this could have been with a bit more thinking.

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