Movie Monday: Passengers

There were some really great-sounding movies released this winter that my husband and I just didn't have time to go see in the theater, and now they are all being released on DVD and streaming. Hurray! After a fun dinner out with friends Friday, we stopped at Redbox and capped off our evening watching Passengers, an intriguing sci fi movie that is kind of like Castaway in space.

5000 passengers and several hundred crew are traveling aboard the luxury star ship Avalon, on their way to a distant planet that houses an Earth colony. Both the ship and the colony are owned by the Homestead Corporation, and these lucky passengers will be starting whole new lives once they arrive. The hitch? The trip takes about 120 years to complete, so they are all - passengers and crew - traveling via autopilot in a state of hibernation.

Something on the ship malfunctions, though, in the first few minutes of the movie, and one of the hibernation pods stops working and wakes its sleeping inhabitant, Jim Preston, played by Chris Pratt. Jim soon realizes he is all alone on the giant ship, the only one awake, and that he has awakened 90 years too early - that means that he will die alone on the ship before he even arrives at the new colony. Things go downhill pretty quickly for Jim, with no company except a robot bartender named Arthur, played by Michael Sheen.

Fortunately for Jim, a second passenger wakes up later, and his sanity is saved. Aurora Lane, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is a beautiful writer from New York who wants to write about the journey and the new colony. Like Jim was, she is upset to find out she woke up when she wasn't supposed to, but at least they have each other. Things are looking up for a while until other aspects of the ship begin to malfunction until reaching a suspenseful crisis point.

We both enjoyed this unique movie that takes place entirely on a ship and has just three actors on-screen (often, just one) for most of the film. Although much of the movie is a love story (this is not a spoiler - it's quite evident from the trailer), there is also plenty of action and suspense, first as they each try to figure out how to fix what went wrong and later as more things begin to go wrong and certain crises come up. The set is gorgeous, on this space-age cruise, and Pratt and Lawrence are both excellent in their roles. For that matter, Arthur is quite charming and amusing himself. The "science" is sometimes a bit iffy, as it usually is in movies like this - I couldn't help wondering why scientists hadn't appreciably increased human lifespan now that they knew how to do things like colonize a distant planet and induce hibernation in humans for decades. But, we were both willing to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride. My husband and I both enjoyed the movie, with romance, a sense of humor, and plenty of suspense. It was a fun journey on a Friday evening!

Passengers is currently out on DVD, available at Redbox or wherever you get DVDs. You can also rent it from Amazon, starting at at $4.99, or buy it digitally or on DVD there (links below). It is not currently available on Netflix.