Reddit Still Remembers This $303M Sci-Fi Must-Watch, Unfairly Panned by Critics

Summary:

• The mixedly-received 2016 science fiction romance horror have been recently recalled by Redditors.
• It follows two people awakening on a spacecraft long before they reach their destination, which forces them to deal with the consequences.
• While it’s severely criticized for poor writing, it’s worth a watch due to its concept, acting performances and visual style.

Back in 2016, 3 years after Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity and 2 years after Christopher Nolan ’s Interstellar, the filmmaker Morten Tyldum released his own take on modern science fiction. Famous mostly for his Oscar-nominated historical drama The Imitation Game (2014), he gained success with it from the public, but was destroyed by critics.

Nevertheless, the movie’s brand-new synopsis promises a capturing story, as the plot revolves around two passengers forced to live alone on a giant spacecraft due to a malfunction in the ship’s defense system. They were supposed to wake up from their induced hibernation 90 years later, like thousands of people carried to a space colony.

However, it’s not the very end of the sci-fi’s premise. It turns out that one of the two passengers, Aurora, was secretly awakened by another one, Jim, for companionship, and she, not being aware of it, starts to mutually fall for him. Moreover, the two are going to pair up to repair the ship’s reactor and save all the passengers from death.

Thus, the movie blends not only science fiction, but romance and horror elements, but such a mix was criticized for being poorly built. Its romantic aspect got panned because of its initially manipulative nature, which makes the whole love story creepy.

However, the film was clearly praised for visuals and sound and even earned two technical Academy nominations. More than that, public reviews point to the greatness of the chemistry of the leading actors and their performances, which benefit the movie.

Indeed, its stars, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, are definitely a solid reason to give this movie a try, apart from the intriguing premise. That is why the movie scored 63% from the audience on Rotten Tomatoes, with only a miserable 30% of critical acclaim.

We’re talking about Passengers, which became a huge commercial success, grossing $304 million worldwide against a net production budget of $110 million. Even 8 years after its release, Redditors discuss the movie’s plot and its eventual quality.

“The film has so many great ideas, but the execution is done badly and it's all out of order,” claims Redditor @DoTortoisesHop, speaking of the movie’s failure to convey all the messages it has, emphasizing the greatness of the initial concept.

Check out whether Passengers suffers from the plot imperfections or not, as it is available for streaming on Netflix and Prime.