At its heart, "Passengers" is an old-fashioned love story clothed in science fiction and special effects. The script requires stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence to to do all of the heavy lifting since they are the only people on screen (with an occasional appearance from robot bartender Arthur played by Michael Sheen and a late cameo by Laurence Fishburn). Pratt and Lawrence make a strong couple. They have good chemistry and Lawrence is able to plumb the conflicting emotions that drive Aurora, her character. Jim (Pratt) awakens 90 years early from a 120-year voyage to a distant colony. The ship is a huge empty vessel with all of the people in hibernation sleep pods. These early scenes with Jim as the only character are slow and Pratt fares better when Aurora (Lawrence) wakes. Pratt's alone scenes lack an emotional punch although we can see that he's lonely to the point of desperation.
Initially, Jim tries to find a solution, but he learns there is no way for him to go back to sleep. He will die of old age before the ship reaches its destination. If he wants to stave off loneliness, he will have to wake someone else up. Jim tries to resist this temptation, but he becomes fascinated with one woman, writer Aurora Lane. When he finally decides to wake her, he condemns her to the same limbo existence he is enduring. Jim is a flawed character, but the script goes to great lengths to present his actions as sympathetic. It also helps that Pratt has a lot of on-screen charisma. With 40 minutes remaining, the film kicks into high 'save the ship' gear and once all of the explosive flames have been extinguished, you wonder, with all the complex technology, that fixes the ship? "Passengers" is entertaining enough and lovely to look at.
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