Passengers ended up being a complicated thing. I understand that ten years ago it was on the so-called Hollywood Black List and that the ending was somewhat different. My feeling after watching it was that it was really two stories -- a story that tried to deal with the horror of being stranded alone for the rest of your life while also trying to deal with the fact that someone essentially stole the rest of your life from you -- while at the same time there's this drama and pressure from the ship falling apart. The stories feel separate, like the horror stories were not enough to keep people's interest so they shoe-horned on the tension of the ship failures, a situation only really handled by the sudden convenient appearance of <>. And then the horror stories get morphed into this rom-com type thing, completely shying away from dealing with the issues raised -- and the audience is for the most part along for the ride, because the stars are just so darned attractive that you end up rooting for them to get together.
There's also a lot of conflicting reviews on the movie, nobody really seems to like it because either it is to muddled or because of post-feminist outrage at the idea that a man in a horrible situation might do something horrible to a woman. (One review remarks that Aurora tries to bring attention to her plight, only to get it "mansplained" away -- my reaction to that review was yeah, the fucking ship is falling apart right now, but lets stop and take the time to make this all about you.) Let's face it, this can't be another Castaway, and if Pratt's character didn't make some bad decisions it would be an awfully boring movie.
All this is set against frankly gorgeous production -- the exteriors are beautiful, the interior sets crisp and clean, the props realistic, the internal technology fascinatingly well done. The music fits the pseudo-Wall-E type of music you'd expect. Visually it is amazing.
Too bad the story doesn't measure up.
