Universal Romance

Passengers can best be described as the Titanic of the Space generation.

Like the Titanic, the Starship Avalon is a ship of dreams. The only catch is that these dreams exist in a planet 120 years away from Earth … oh, and disaster is waiting to happen.

The plot focuses on Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), one of the 5,000 passengers on board who awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years early only to realise that he’s the only one awake. Jim attempts to go back into hibernation but gives up after sometime.

A year after isolation, Jim notices the beautiful Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) in her hibernation pod, watches the passenger profile videos about her life and instantly falls for her. After his lengthy solitude, Jim is faced with the moral dilemma to either wake Aurora up from hibernation or allow her to sleep and continue his isolation.

Furthermore, there are bigger problems on the horizon. The ship’s systems begin to fail, with the other crew’s lives at stake if nothing can be done.

From the beginning when the score opens with the Starship Avalon all the way to the end, Passengers is a classic suite from composer Thomas Newman. From high-strung drama to intergalactic doom to soft romance, Newman captures a little of everything, which makes the soundtrack so memorable.

There are eeting melodies, which suck us right into the vortex of emotion in the film at ust the right moments. In some ways, Passengers is predictable but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the watch. Lawrence and ratt’s witty and irty chemistry is unmatched and they complement each other as well as two peas in a pod (pun not intended).

The plot always has something new happening so you’ll never be bored. However, I must admit that when I went to watch the movie, I went purely for the love story between Lawrence and Pratt, who in my opinion both gave pure, raw emotional performances.

Passengers is about the very human emotion one feels when they leave everything they know and love behind to start fresh. Without spoiling too much, if you watch the trailer Jim says: “There’s a reason we woke up early,” and in my opinion the reason is a test of humanity.

With 5,000 other passengers on board, an ordinary person could accept defeat and death but Jim and Aurora are courageous and act on behalf of those passengers who are defenceless. Coming back to the Titanic comparison, there’s something about Hollywood and imminent death that makes for a good argument absolver.

In Titanic, Jack is accused of stealing the necklace, which causes Rose to mistrust him but the sinking of the ship brings them together once more. Similarly, the imminent destruction of the ship brings these two even closer after some difficulties.

This movie serves as a testament that sometimes what is required of a movie isn’t something new, but rather something tested and ably proven. Passengers, plays us like the suckers for a sappy ending that we all, openly or secretly, are.

Now showing: Cineco, Seef I, Wadi Al Sail, Saar, Al Jazeera, Dana, Novo, Mukta A2