It seemed like a match made in heaven having two of the hottest young Hollywood stars, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, working together.
However, reviews for their sci-fi romance Passengers, which opens on December 22 in the UAE, have not been kind.
Passengers is the story of two people on a spaceship headed to a distant colony who wake up 90 years early. There is no way to go back to deep sleep, so they try to find ways to entertain themselves.
Oscar-winner Lawrence, 26, who last year publicly attacked Hollywood’s female pay gap, was paid some $20 million (Dh73.4 million) for the movie, according to Hollywood trade publications, double that of Pratt, who has starred in action movies.
Film critics are feeling let down by the movie overall. Passengers has a 30 per cent approval rating on review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com and has so far been overlooked in Hollywood’s awards season.
Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a D+, saying “The signs to be hopeful were all there: A pair of dependable movie stars, a bullish Oscar-season spot on the release calendar, a director [Morten Tyldum] hot off of an Oscar-nominated film. But alas, Passengers is not very good. In fact, it’s pretty bad.”
It described the film as a “risible two-hour exhibit of sci-fi Stockholm Syndrome”
Many reviewers argue that the film killed itself with its problematic opening premise.
After Jim (Pratt) accidently wakes, he rouses Aurora (Larence) deliberately to relieve his profound loneliness, a selfish act that effectively makes her his victim, undermining any empathy audiences might feel for his character.
“It’s a fantastically creepy start,” the Guardian newspaper says, “and while Lawrence and Pratt undeniably possess the magic spark of on-screen chemistry, the basic creepiness of this anti-meet-cute extinguishes what the filmmakers presumably are hoping is a warm fuzzy glow of spiky, sparky interaction.”
One aspect of Passengers critics have praised is the casting of Michael Sheen, an accomplished stage and screen actor known to millions as a vampire in the Twilight saga and a werewolf in the Underworld franchise.
The 47-year-old Welshman has been singled out for praise for his portrayal of Arthur, the ship’s android bartender, who has to figure out the balance between being robotic and human.
“I was so excited on my first day to walk onto the set, to meet Jen and Chris, and I thought I’m going to look fairly spiffy as I walk on in my costume,” Sheen said.
“And then I was given the green tights that I had to wear at all times and I knew my chances with Jen were over.”
Many have given the film almost universally negative reviews, pointing to its confused, half-comic, half existential thriller tone and nonsensical plot.
The Hollywood Reporter concluded that “dazzling design and star power don’t quite keep this starship afloat.”
Passengers releases in the UAE on December 22.
