I actually liked this quite a bit. It won't reinvent the wheel for its genre and really amounts to essentially being a tamer Titanic in space (at one point Lawrence's character even utters the line "We're on a sinking ship"), but it's a kind of old fashioned romantic blockbuster that Hollywood doesn't really make anymore and is consistently entertaining and engaging. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are both good and have solid chemistry, even though this movie does skate by considerably on the charm of the two of them. Michael Sheen also has a good time in a fun supporting role. The visuals are also pretty cool and there are some really well-done sequences. Just fun popcorn entertainment that ultimately leaves you with a smile on your face. If you're a fan of the two leads you'll enjoy yourself. B/B+

I expected more from it but not because of the actors but the story had a lot of potential. Its fun to waste your time but there are some stupid plot decisions (aka the central conflict between the leads) that makes the whole encounter stupid and the end gives no real reason for the movie to exist. Its fun thanks to the chemistry between the leads and the wonderful Michael Sheen but the script is terrible, I really wonder why the two leads took this one.

5/10

nice jab at dark shape

Watchable, and visually on point but it was missing something to elevate it. Maybe it's Pratt and Lawrence's chemistry, which is fine but not sizzling. Both give decent performances (besides a few moments of overacting from Lawrence) but the romance doesn't feel authentic.

I absolutely loved Passengers - it's my kind of movie! A look into the future of humanity without aliens, without superhumans, without monsters, just a straigthtforward science fiction movie. The story is involving, the two hours whizzed by, with just enough dilemma and drama to satisfy the demand for narrative conflict. The set design is impeccable. The two leads are very believable and made the romance come alive. I'd love to see a sequel about life on the colony, but I realize this type of future positive science fiction is very niche these days. Still, today was a glorious day in my own movie-going life. *A+*

Wow. A+ for this, Glad you liked it that much. It was fun for me but it is a really flawed movie that makes it cheesy in most of the main points as well as the climax. Though I don't understand how you say that this movie depicts future of humanity aside from a reference or two, I'd say its a straight up romance movie with a backdrop of sci-fi in it. Its about future and has a reference to the world but there seems to be just NOTHING in this movie that is not available today (talking computers, automated vending machines).

I agree though the life on the colony would be an interesting movie which would depict the future as you are expecting.

The premise of the movie is about the choices that people would have to make to commit to a one-way 120 year flight to another planet, which is further expanded on by the sleeping pod malfunction. It is such a pleasure to see a utopian human future portrayed, when dystopian narratives are so fashionable at present.

I see it as just the opposite - a straight up sci-fi movie with a romantic backdrop. Until the third act, when the need for the two passengers to be awake to save the ship becomes apparent, Passengers is an ethically challenging movie. Opening Aurora's sleeping pod plays out like rape, or as the story develops - someone murdering another person to save their own sanity. The intensity of discussion possible on the morality of this plot point should not be underestimated.

Like all great sci-fi, Passengers takes existing trends and projects them into the future to comment on the present. I loved all the corporate promo material at the beginning: selling the colony and the spaceship company's services, as well as the distinction between the passenger classes ("I'd like a Super Mocha Cappuccino, please." "That's only available on the gold meal plan.")

Unfortunately, current producers would have to add a ridiculous dilemma to sell the story - alien threat, I'm looking at you. Most people today have been trained to need explosions every 3.5 minutes to hold their attention. A movie which explores the wonders and challenges of colony life on a distant planet is not going to happen anytime soon. That's why I am so happy that at least Passengers was made - it's a rare sci-fi treat.

I actually ride with bradley's taste. I'm interested in Passengers now

Andy García clearly dug deep for his performance here. His best role since The Godfather Part III.

Only three decades into a 120-year journey through space to a newly colonized planet, a collision with a vast meteor rouses mechanic James Preston (Chris Pratt), one of 5,000 passengers, from extended hibernation. Facing spending the rest of his life alone on the luxurious spacecraft with only an android bartender (Michael Sheen) for company, he contemplates bringing a beautiful writer, Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), out of her cryogenic sleep, weighing the amorality of such an act—arguably tantamount to murder—against his own despondency and isolation. Meanwhile, malfunctions and system failures slowly mount, ultimately threatening the entire ship. A highly commercial and polished star vehicle, Passengers mostly engages for its first hour, buoyed by Lawrence and Pratt's photogenic charisma, an expertly deadpan comic turn by Sheen, frequently striking art direction, and a central moral conundrum which stings and intrigues even as the film shies away from its most grim implications. The film's end game, through, misfires. The romance-cum-unconventional-hostage-situation (at once eerie and sexy, built on deceit and defined by sincere longing) is swept aside by unexciting, routine save-the-ship disaster-movie beats, and the last few minutes are so abrupt and unearned as to be nearly disastrous.

B-

Oh, one element I forgot to praise above: Thomas Newman's atmospheric, beautiful, rousing score. One of the best of the year.

This movie is enjoyable. I don't really think it deserves the negative reviews. It's a million times better than Rogue One.

And Thomas Newman's score was excellent. He's always been one of my favorites.

Probably the most disappointing movie of the year, if only because a Jennifer Lawrence-Chris Pratt pairing had tremendous potential. The two give it their all here (Lawrence especially desperately trying to wring everything she can out of an underwritten part), and the film serves as passable entertainment. It's seriously hampered by a rather icky moral undercurrent and a lame conclusion, though. Almost everything about it feels average and indistinguishable from other, better movies. But I didn't hate it. C+

This film was pretty much what I expected it to be for the first two acts and I was actually digging it until that third act shit the bed. The ending was terrible and is one of the main reasons why I wound up giving this a C instead of a B. Pratt and Lawrence are fine, but the chemistry wasn't always there and while I like Pratt it's obvious from the beginning that he's miscast in the role. They definitely needed someone with more emotional range. Michael Sheen was great though and outside the visual effects the best thing about this movie. I also chuckled a bit at the random Andy Garcia cameo at the end.

Reportedly García shot a relatively more involved scene where he and his lieutenants go around the ship and see various remnants of the "world" Pratt and Lawrence made for themselves. They should have left this in. The ending feels SO abrupt.

While this is not the masterpiece it could have been, I still liked it a lot. I thought Pratt was a bit shaky at the beginning but grew quite nicely into the part. Lawrence was fantastic but I wasn't expecting anything less from her. The movie moved along at a great pace but 30 minutes more wouldn't have hurt it, imo. I wasn't completely buying the love between the two, so the ending wasn't as heartbreaking for me as it could have been. I hope there's a director's cut somewhere out there that fixes my problems I had with the movie.

edit: I would have loved to see an Up-style Montage at the end like David said.

Passengers

So this is actually a good film! It is still a missed opportunity. The film takes a different route to tell this story. It could have gone with true drama; panic, desperation, worry, hard-hitting human questions, but it doesn't, and I believe it doesn't because it has Chris Pratt in the lead role. His ability to convey anything more than a cocky, wise-cracking, nothing-fazes-me, chiseled model fails every single time. Pratt and Lawrence are poles apart. Lawrence is just fantastic. She can do these types of role. She has the range. If they cast Oscar Isaac instead of Pratt, this would be a different film. So instead they go for The Martian-lite, where Pratt is the new Mark Watney (he's just a mechanic, but somehow he can fix literally everything). Their chemistry is passable. One thing that was kind of "wtf" was when Lane is writing and she says that the two of them would never normally be together. I couldn't help but think that was incorrect. Looking at them, and how they get on so well, I'd imagine they are both perfectly each other's type, so perhaps whoever was in charge of casting really shouldn't have picked Pratt (or whoever wrote it should have omitted that line). So, yeah, the film isn't what it could have been. But then it becomes something else, which is equally as good. It is a science-fiction what-if, with emphasis on fiction, so leave your logic at the door. The dialogue isn't great, Lawrence doesn't do it for me in terms of eye candy, and the cinematography leaves a lot to be desired considering other recent space films, but it is a very entertaining and gripping sci-fi blockbuster, showcasing some neat visuals, fun ideas, a tidy ending, and the lesson that we should make the most of the "now" and stop worrying about where we want to be. I liked it.

B+

I enjoyed this a lot, pretty excellent for the most part, thought Pratt and Lawrence were both very well cast and a good role from Fishburne too. The space and all special effects shots look stunning and it has a nice score too. Just it falls apart towards the end for me, with a rather abrupt end as well. It's pretty much just a love story, not one I was particularly interested in, but the sci-fi back drop make in to a very good film for me. The mystery revolving around the ship kept me engaged throughout. Just near the end, I found there to be some peculiarities that deflate the film a bit. When the room was heating up, and everything Lawrence touches was so hot, she could just hold the handles for a few seconds just because she put a piece of cloth on it. Lawrence going out to get Pratt, then nearly getting to him, but just failing and then still pulling him in. Reviving Pratt by just pressing every single button on the screen. And then the ending, did we really need the Garcia cameo and no further information what soever of how they built the home. More information about the new planet would have been welcome too. It's a very well made film, but for one that was all about the love story it didn't make me fall in love enough with it. Falls in the same bracket as The Imitation Game for me.

B+

So yeah, completely agree with this.

And btw, Micheal Sheen was great in this too.

When things like this happen in films that I am enjoying, I let them slide. I don't feel they're particularly worthy of highlighting, even though I see why you did (to give a rounded review, let people know that it wasn't all positive, let people know why you didn't give it an A+). I feel it is possible to be extremely positive (i.e. no criticisms whatsoever) and still award a film a B+.

I guess it depends when to let something slide or not, for some films if feels apparent and for others it might not. Here in Passengers it kind of took me out of the zone, so I find it a negative. Overall it is a very enjoyable film though, the first hour I completely loved. The way Lawrence had to find out she was woken up by Pratt, I'm not sure if this was the best decision either. The them falling in love part was great and her resentment of him afterwards was also good, but after that it went really quick from her suddenly deciding she can't live without him and the the film being over...wish they stretched it a bit more.

*1/2 / ***** (D-)

A visually stunning turd. I don't know why people aren't bothered by the whole premise of the movie. A guy basically sentencing other human being (a pretty blond female he cherry picked from 4999 co-passengers) for a ride with him until they die. And when the movie finally gets around to handling that it does it poorly and very soon abandons that plot completely because everything is falling apart and "oh my thanks for waking me up, it was a good thing because now I can help you save the ship because luck has it we need two people for the job". The guy who wrote this shit hopefully never writes anything again.

This movie asks for huge leaps of faith every time it forwards the plot as you have to accept things without any questing for this to make sense. It's a perfect example of a plot being too scripted it could only ever exist on paper. In theory a plot like that can be useful to explore certain intriguing question (which this movie could've done via the central premise of one human deciding the fate/death of the other) but Passengers is too obsessed with visual style and trying to fake a romance/action plot to be able to sell to mainstream audiences.

Too late, Jon Spaihts has already written this year's The Mummy and he's signed on for the Van Helsing reboot. He also previously wrote Doctor Strange and Prometheus.