What critics are saying about ‘Passengers’ — it’s not good

“Passengers” is part science-fiction thriller, part lost-in-space romance starring two of Hollywood’s most likable actors, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, but even that isn’t enough to save this film.

Lawrence and Pratt have real chemistry, both on screen and off, but despite their natural likability as actors, critics seem soured on the film’s predictable and uneven script (Rotten Tomatoes has it around 30%). The movie is playing in theaters nationwide.

Pratt, perhaps Lake Stevens most famous resident, told the Seattle Times that he loved the questions the screenplay posed: “It was about examining the effect of being isolated, and instead of having an actor to switch to, to react, I had nobody, and so I was reacting to not having anybody,” he said. “Solitary confinement — there’s a reason it’s a form of punishment and torture, and I liked the idea of exploring what that does to the human psyche, being cut off from something so vital which is love for another person.”

The film follows the saga of regular guy Jim Preston (Pratt) and stunningly beautiful journalist Aurora Lane (Lawrence), who are among the hibernating passengers on a space ship traveling to a new planet they will reach 120 years in the future. Trouble begins when first Jim, then eventually Aurora awake only to find out they’re still 90 years from their destination.

Here’s what the national critics are saying about this sci-fi thriller:

Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times says it starts promising then something goes awry:

 A plot device, which I won’t spell out here, changes the way we look at Jim, but the movie doesn’t seem to grasp this; instead, a weird space romance plays out, followed by a brief transformation into a not-very-convincing space disaster movie, and ultimately an ending that’ll leave you with a well-scratched head and many questions (most notably, “Um, what?”).

Kenneth Turan of the LA Times says: Sweet but inconsequential at its best, overly contrived at most other times:

Though “Passengers’” visuals can be stunning (a swimming pool at zero gravity is especially effective) and the actors easy on the eyes, it never overcomes the problem of predictability.

While every plot move the film makes is defensible in theory, so many of them, like the Jim/Aurora attraction, are so obvious it’s frustrating to have to wait long stretches of time for them to happen. Part outer-space romantic comedy, part science-fiction thriller, “Passengers” leave us feeling we’ve been taken for a ride.

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly says that despite the dependable movie stars, the movie is just bad:

Passengers is not very good. In fact, it’s pretty bad.

The studio is positioning this new Chris Pratt-Jennifer Lawrence sci-fi flick as a sort of Adam-and-Eve riff on The Martian. Two passengers on a space ship headed to a distant colony called Homestead II are woken up 90 years before they should be. Something with their hibernation pods goes wrong and now they’re stranded together and alone. They have to figure out a way to survive – and if sparks fly while they’re hurtling through space, well, all the better. That’s the way the trailer makes it seem, at least.  And I’ll be honest, that’s a movie I’d kind of want to see. But that’s not what we get. Not even close. Passengers is way stupider than that.

Owen Gleiberman of Variety says the film begins promisingly but gets lost in space:

“Passengers” is the tale of a lonely guy in space, the drama of an ethical conundrum, a love story featuring two of the hottest actors on the planet, and a turbulent sci-fi action-adventure — and for all of that, it manages to be not a very good movie. The two stars, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, are both intensely gifted and easy on the eyes, and the film takes off from a not-bad idea, but the setup is way better than the follow-through.

Katie Rife of  the A.V. Club says the movie strains the considerable charms of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence:

Lawrence can act circles around Pratt, but he’s so darn affable you just don’t care. They’ve both got loads of that ineffable “it,” and their charisma is usually more than enough to carry a film. This time, though, their charm may have found its limit.

… the effect of Passengers is to turn frothy sci-fi romance into an astonishingly retrograde statement on autonomy and consent, and to turn one of the most likable actors in Hollywood into a total (expletive) creep. A date movie, this is not.

Jeff Albertson: jalbertson@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @Jeff_Albertson.