I finally saw it and very much enjoyed it. Jennifer Lawrence was great! The special effects were amazing! I was really worried that it would end in tragedy. I'm glad I was proved wrong.
Passengers(2016)
- Thread starter RAMA
- Start date
Mmmm... interesting moral quandry thrown out the airlock for SFX and an over-tested happy ending.
There were some fascinating themes in the film, that if in the hands of, say, Denis Viellneuve, Fincher or Ben Wheatley, might have made a great film about the personas we create in our heads of the people we've never met but think we know, the cost and desperation of loniliness and abandonment, and the struggles we wrestle with over forgiveness.
What we got was a mishmash of The Martian humour (without the humanity), deep space Titanic love story, inklings of class separation from Snowpiercer, and half evolved characters, coasting on Big Cast Names, that I couldn't latch onto. Beautiful prodction design, however, and Michael Sheen is always a joy to watch, limited role or not.
Hugo - would certainly plant a tree on a ship too
There were some fascinating themes in the film, that if in the hands of, say, Denis Viellneuve, Fincher or Ben Wheatley, might have made a great film about the personas we create in our heads of the people we've never met but think we know, the cost and desperation of loniliness and abandonment, and the struggles we wrestle with over forgiveness.
What we got was a mishmash of The Martian humour (without the humanity), deep space Titanic love story, inklings of class separation from Snowpiercer, and half evolved characters, coasting on Big Cast Names, that I couldn't latch onto. Beautiful prodction design, however, and Michael Sheen is always a joy to watch, limited role or not.
Hugo - would certainly plant a tree on a ship too
A box office success, Passengers made $300 million on a budget of $110 million. It was nominated for 2 Academy Awards. The film also won an Art Director's Guild Award.
I saw this film a few weeks ago. I was generally impressed.
A disclaimer: I was swayed by the very first scene in the movie..the very best extrapolation of a meteor/meteorite deflector shield we have ever seen in operation in scifi history. Also, one of the most unique, finely rendered, beautiful starships in all of scifi cinema history. It'll be spoken of for a long time and is already popular in social media where I've brought it up.
The controversy: The point of most films is that there is drama in those who are imperfect and make mistakes. There is no denying Jim Preston makes a huge mistake in reviving Aurora. In effect, she will live a normal life but not be alive for the arrival of what was supposed be a different life on a new planet.
My interest: Does Jim have the necessary reason to commit this act which on the surface seems so callous? He spends a year in isolation..everyone acts differently in this event. NASA and other groups have tested long-term isolation but in most cases, this still involves multiple people. Even then, there are often problems. In one early test in the 60s, 2 astronauts went in as friends but didn't get along well after only a month in isolation. Today astronauts last a year in the space station, but again with multiple companions. Tests have shown that humans in small groups can do quite well for long duration flights (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARS-500). How would someone last in space alone, within a huge starship that makes someone feel even more insignificant? On Earth, individuals tend to do poorly. The cerebral cortex itself can become damaged with severe neurobiological effects. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140514-how-extreme-isolation-warps-minds
http://solitarywatch.com/2014/08/04/what-solitary-confinement-does-to-the-human-brain/
Jim is shown to exist and pass time alone for over a year. While he seems ok to us for most of the time, he eventually is seconds away from suicide. For me, this does not excuse his actions, it makes them understandable.
The second question for me: Did Jim do enough to make up for it? If he does, in this case, the one who is the "victim" here has a choice to accept or not accept this person back into their life.
The victim is relatively alone as well, and a crisis erupts, thrown together this can cause a feeling of camaraderie and devotion. Jim sacrifices himself for Aurora and she chooses to help him live, a big moment in the movie. I accept this is what she wants.
In the end, despite a chance to live past her normal lifespan, she chooses not to. They live a normal happy life like anyone else. Her normal span is not changed in any way. My only surprise: We didn't see children running out of the forest at the end.
I've seen women and some men harshly criticize this movie. Jim is a manipulator, using the loudspeaker system to torment her, etc. I simply don't agree. While that might have happened, Jim is earnest and apologetic and even attempts to give her space (where he is totally alone again mind you). He does make a questionable look into her recordings, something called "stalking" by some critics, though again, this was to him, a low-level attempt at alleviating loneliness that wasn't too invasive. You might say he'd have been attracted to anyone at that point, but in this case it happened to be Aurora. Again, I won't excuse it, but I find it understandable.
In other aspects, the movie is a total winner. Awesome production design, nice cast, great SFX.
To me, this is one of the better scifi movies of a generally weak year. It's definitely in my top 4 or 5. I can see myself rewatching this one over the years.
Grade: A-
I saw this film a few weeks ago. I was generally impressed.
A disclaimer: I was swayed by the very first scene in the movie..the very best extrapolation of a meteor/meteorite deflector shield we have ever seen in operation in scifi history. Also, one of the most unique, finely rendered, beautiful starships in all of scifi cinema history. It'll be spoken of for a long time and is already popular in social media where I've brought it up.
The controversy: The point of most films is that there is drama in those who are imperfect and make mistakes. There is no denying Jim Preston makes a huge mistake in reviving Aurora. In effect, she will live a normal life but not be alive for the arrival of what was supposed be a different life on a new planet.
My interest: Does Jim have the necessary reason to commit this act which on the surface seems so callous? He spends a year in isolation..everyone acts differently in this event. NASA and other groups have tested long-term isolation but in most cases, this still involves multiple people. Even then, there are often problems. In one early test in the 60s, 2 astronauts went in as friends but didn't get along well after only a month in isolation. Today astronauts last a year in the space station, but again with multiple companions. Tests have shown that humans in small groups can do quite well for long duration flights (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARS-500). How would someone last in space alone, within a huge starship that makes someone feel even more insignificant? On Earth, individuals tend to do poorly. The cerebral cortex itself can become damaged with severe neurobiological effects. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140514-how-extreme-isolation-warps-minds
http://solitarywatch.com/2014/08/04/what-solitary-confinement-does-to-the-human-brain/
Jim is shown to exist and pass time alone for over a year. While he seems ok to us for most of the time, he eventually is seconds away from suicide. For me, this does not excuse his actions, it makes them understandable.
The second question for me: Did Jim do enough to make up for it? If he does, in this case, the one who is the "victim" here has a choice to accept or not accept this person back into their life.
The victim is relatively alone as well, and a crisis erupts, thrown together this can cause a feeling of camaraderie and devotion. Jim sacrifices himself for Aurora and she chooses to help him live, a big moment in the movie. I accept this is what she wants.
In the end, despite a chance to live past her normal lifespan, she chooses not to. They live a normal happy life like anyone else. Her normal span is not changed in any way. My only surprise: We didn't see children running out of the forest at the end.
I've seen women and some men harshly criticize this movie. Jim is a manipulator, using the loudspeaker system to torment her, etc. I simply don't agree. While that might have happened, Jim is earnest and apologetic and even attempts to give her space (where he is totally alone again mind you). He does make a questionable look into her recordings, something called "stalking" by some critics, though again, this was to him, a low-level attempt at alleviating loneliness that wasn't too invasive. You might say he'd have been attracted to anyone at that point, but in this case it happened to be Aurora. Again, I won't excuse it, but I find it understandable.
In other aspects, the movie is a total winner. Awesome production design, nice cast, great SFX.
To me, this is one of the better scifi movies of a generally weak year. It's definitely in my top 4 or 5. I can see myself rewatching this one over the years.
Grade: A-
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The fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty translated into outer space.
Haven't seen the movie, but thought this video had an interesting idea:
Very interesting.
Another interesting ending would be for him to knock her out and put her in the medical chamber, allowing her to make the journey and forcing him to die alone.
So he strips her of her choice and her free will for a second time? That's even worse!
Na, he realizes the error of his ways.
She will be upset when she awakes, but her angst will soon subside when she realizes she now gets to live her life's dream.
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So... she says no but she really means yes?
I never had much interest in this film one way or the other but the cut this guy put together sounds a lot more interesting as does the Twilight Zone like ending that's been mentioned several times.
I too found the Nerdwriter video interesting, but think he really downplays the torture of Jim's extended solitude; he seems to think of it as a very bad situation rather than a legitimately mind-damaging one, and omits any mention of his near-suicide. Passengers isn't a perfect or great movie, IMO, but if you don't accept that Jim was mentally unwell when he did what he did, you don't get the facts of the premise, and thus any discussion over its treatment of said premise is fundamentally off-kilter.
I really like this. It adds a lot more mystery to the movie. The viewer would have wondered what really happened and if Pratt's character was a good guy or a bad guy until the reveal. I also like the twilight zone type ending. It would have been much better than the 3rd act that we got which went the generic action route.
I saw it recently and I really liked it overall. Pratt and Lawrence were great and had wonderful chemistry IMO + who doesn't love some Michael Sheen. It was nice to have a small role from Laurence Fishburne too though the Andy Garcia cameo was weird (I heard he had lines in other takes). It looked good, the pacing was good and i just enjoyed myself, it was a nice watch.
The makings of true love... or a weak third act.
I get where every wanted a dark ending. but I like how it ended. a sic fi love story noting sald I love you like going out a ship going half the speed of light and diging you boy friend all the way to med bay . lol I knew she was not going to leave him. Could you do that to some 1 that save you and 5000 other? In the end he got the need of the many out weight of the few or the 1 thing! I like how the movie was about Forgiveness too ! she had every right to hate him but she forgive him! For the Music of the movie I would have put I'm Only Human by the human League and at the very end have OUR house. play! 2 thing I like to ask about the movie 1. they was going half the speed of light would time slow down for them ? make it feel only 60 years? 2. when she was in that BIG ball of water why could not just swin out of it! thank you for your time!