![]() ![]() ![]() That’s what chemistry and charisma look like on the screen. That didn’t happen by accident, or by directorial design alone. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney set off real sparks and generated genuine pathos in “Gravity,” which has scenarios and suggestions of sacrifice that “Passengers” borrows. It says something about the picture that Pratt is more interesting in his scenes alone, or with the android bartender. Lawrence, with or without an Oscar, has never been able to conjure up romantic longing, no matter how beautiful and beguiling she is. Pratt has nice comic timing, even if he’s somewhat lacking in romantic leading man moves. All that’s left to ponder in this Morten Tyldum (“The Imitation Game”) exercise in tedium is what they’ll have at the bar, which seems straight out of “The Shining.” We know what’s wrong, we know who has crossed which lines. It’s a slow-moving “spoiler alert” of a thriller. And Lawrence and Pratt find themselves trapped in a routine cruise ship romance where the pool reaches out into the cosmos, and space suit excursions take the place of rock-climbing walls, luaus and tiki bars. The film has lots of promising problems for us to dive into with our heroes, mechanical and philosophical puzzles to sort out.īut from the opening moments, Jon Spaihts’ screenplay drifts off course, choosing to explain things that would be more dramatic as mysteries and secrets. He is stumped by the ship’s disinterest in their dilemma, the lack of response from the automation to solving their “unthinkable” customer service failure. Jim’s a mechanic with an engineering bent, Aurora’s a writer - a journalist. Save for the big one, or the philosophical ones. Arthur (Michael Sheen) is programmed to listen patiently to their woes, cleaning drink tumblers and generally being sympathetic to their every need. Well, alone save for Arthur the Automated Bartender. Jim and Aurora are all alone, awake in the void, doomed to die long before their estimated time of arrival. “Passengers” pairs up the talented and stubble-faced Chris Pratt and the plucky, winsome Jennifer Lawrence in this dilemma. “Ninety years…We apologize for the delay.” How long until everybody else wakes up, you know, upon arrival at Homestead II? You’re on your way to Homestead II, the planet colony you’ll be joining.īut if you’re hearing that and you’re all alone, something has gone wrong. “Wake up, Sunshine! It’s time to relax and enjoy your stay!” The space liner Avalon summons up memories of Douglas Adams’ “Starship Titanic,” right down to the inane in-flight announcements by the automated passenger-service PA system. “Passengers” offers up such a spotless, pristine vision of our space traveling future that you might be tempted to book a flight.Ī gigantic, roomy and shiny space liner takes a crew of 250 or so and 5,000 paying clients among the stars - without - in this case at least, a stop in Key West. ![]()
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