Review of Passengers (2016) by Joel S — 31 Mar 2017

I'll keep this brief, as I don't want to explore the vast universe through the eyes of Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt for too much longer. This reasoning being grounded on the fact that I just finished watching the movie.

For one, I don't agree with the critics on this one, although I understand why they gave this movie such low ratings. What was their reason? Well, because Passengers gave into the cliche, Hollywood ending that they thought people wanted to see.

The writers had a chance to end the movie with Chris Pratt dying in the process of saving the Avalon, which was the ending that should have happened. He wakes up Aurora, essentially--as she puts it--murdering her from any life outside the ship.

She is then faced with the same decision--to "murder" Jim--this time for the greater good of saving the thousands of lives on board. The whole story would have come around full circle, just like any great story should.

But, instead, as I mentioned sentences ago, the writers decided to give the people what they wanted, instead of what the story demanded. But besides this crucial misstep, I enjoyed the journey of these two strangers falling in and out of love with each other due to the unlikely circumstances (and Jim's somewhat creepy adoration of Aurora) that brought them together.

And that's a shame, because if the movie had ended the way it should have, then I truly believe this would have gotten much higher ratings. The acting was well-done, the music won an Oscar for God's sake, the visual effects were on point, and the turmoil slowly, yet consistently, played out to the beat of a broken heart.

It's just a shame that a broken heart can be so easily mended by the Hollywood overlords. We don't want cheap endings that cater to our every last emotional need, we want stories. And that means staying true to the story.

Heck, with so much talk about Aurora writing her book, and how she had trouble writing about herself, I thought she would end up writing about Jim's sacrifice to save the lives of countless strangers aboard the ship.

There's your story, Aurora; it's just a bit too late now.