Passengers (12A.)
Directed by Morten Tyldum.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt and Michael Sheen. 116 mins
The promotional campaign for this has been very cagey. Beyond the very basic plot outline – on a big spaceship transporting hibernating passengers to a new life on a distant planet, two people wake up way too early – all it wants to tell us about the film is Look, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt Are In It. And by way of elaboration on that we get Jennifer Lawrence And Chris Pratt Are In It And Look How Gorgeous They Are.
The opening credits announce this is a product of Original Films (a presumptuous name for a production company - it effectively rules out Passengers 2 before they have even started.) We can debate how original Passengers is, but it definitely isn't a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot or re-imagining which means that a viewer can go in not knowing exactly what to expect, and as that is the film's main pleasure I shall try to be cagey here.
I will though reveal that this is more of character piece than action movie, which I think you could guess from the fact that they got the director of The Imitation Game, rather than some special effects guy, in to direct. In blockbuster Hollywood terms the script is trying to be bold and unusual - it all hinges on a moment when a character fails to apply the What Would Tom Hanks Do ethos to a moral quandry - but the production design doesn't have an original idea in its head. Every set, every image has been seen before, and seen done better. It feels like the production has been designed so that nothing can be allowed to get in the way of, or distract from, its two stars.
It may be set on a giant spaceship, but the sci-fi trapping are so mundane it might just as well be a two- hander on a stage. They both deliver decent performances, (I was really struck by Pratt's resemblance to Paul Rudd) but the ideas and the writing aren't strong enough to merit such concentration on the performers, and the sense of isolation isn't forcefully conveyed. For me, because it's Christmas and because I can't remember the last time I went into an $120 million movie with so little idea of what was coming next, the novelty outweighed the misgivings; if I was member of the paying audience, I might not be so generous: because it's Christmas and I was expecting a big fun holiday movie.
Directed by Morten Tyldum.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt and Michael Sheen. 116 mins
The promotional campaign for this has been very cagey. Beyond the very basic plot outline – on a big spaceship transporting hibernating passengers to a new life on a distant planet, two people wake up way too early – all it wants to tell us about the film is Look, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt Are In It. And by way of elaboration on that we get Jennifer Lawrence And Chris Pratt Are In It And Look How Gorgeous They Are.
The opening credits announce this is a product of Original Films (a presumptuous name for a production company - it effectively rules out Passengers 2 before they have even started.) We can debate how original Passengers is, but it definitely isn't a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot or re-imagining which means that a viewer can go in not knowing exactly what to expect, and as that is the film's main pleasure I shall try to be cagey here.
I will though reveal that this is more of character piece than action movie, which I think you could guess from the fact that they got the director of The Imitation Game, rather than some special effects guy, in to direct. In blockbuster Hollywood terms the script is trying to be bold and unusual - it all hinges on a moment when a character fails to apply the What Would Tom Hanks Do ethos to a moral quandry - but the production design doesn't have an original idea in its head. Every set, every image has been seen before, and seen done better. It feels like the production has been designed so that nothing can be allowed to get in the way of, or distract from, its two stars.
It may be set on a giant spaceship, but the sci-fi trapping are so mundane it might just as well be a two- hander on a stage. They both deliver decent performances, (I was really struck by Pratt's resemblance to Paul Rudd) but the ideas and the writing aren't strong enough to merit such concentration on the performers, and the sense of isolation isn't forcefully conveyed. For me, because it's Christmas and because I can't remember the last time I went into an $120 million movie with so little idea of what was coming next, the novelty outweighed the misgivings; if I was member of the paying audience, I might not be so generous: because it's Christmas and I was expecting a big fun holiday movie.
