Review of Passengers (2016) by Evry1S A — 20 Aug 2017

The critics really got this one wrong. It was a good movie. Solid. Not Oscar material. But a good story which was well executed and fun to watch. This movie in no way deserves the terrible reviews it received. And I'm giving it the best review I can possibly give precisely because the critics got it so badly wrong.

I think part of the problem is that some critics couldn't get over the initial selfish, and morally repugnant thing that Jim Preston does in the beginning of the movie. Many professional and amateur critics called what he did as "Rapey", "Stalky", "Misogynistic", and so on and I suppose they couldn't really forgive the character or the movie after his bad deed. But this take represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the movie and what it was trying to achieve. Passengers is not a romantic movie. This is not a story revolving around an obstacle which prevents deep and true romantic love between two people. This movie s a version of the age old Hero's journey. This is the monomyth that Joseph Campbell told us about. This movie is about Jim Preston REDEEMING himself through heroic action, risking his physical well-being for the benefit of his entire community. That is the very definition of a hero. And it's a particular version of the Hero's journey which has been told since Greek times, and probably before that. And the well-meaning critics who, in my view, would rather virtue signal than give an accurate review of the movie seemingly forgot that it was Aurora Lane's right to forgive Jim Preston. She chose, of her own free will, to forgive Jim Preston because of his heroic self-sacrifice both to the community and to Aurora Lane herself. How funny is that? Their willingness to give women free agency only extends as far as they agree with any particular woman's decision.

I think it's great that the girls are being taught stories that reinforces the value of independent thought and action. But the boys still need the stories that teach them how to be men.