Fireblood
Since: Jan, 2001
01/07/2017 00:00:00
I agree, it was good to see a more complex set of characters. The company is portrayed as negligent or incompetent, not outright malicious. Jim is portrayed as doing something he knows is wrong due to desperation and loneliness similarly. Aurora reacts how you'd expect to this. I also thought the crisis in the film was more realistic (both the problem and fix) than most. All in all far better than some of those I've seen. Like you said, mixed feelings about a main character (where they aren't just black or white) is a good thing which we don't see much.
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So let's talk about Passengers
First: the easy stuff.
Visually, Passengers is an absolutely fantastic movie with a sleek, futuristic look and grade-a acting all around. And it's nice to have a sci-fi story where the ridiculously rich megacorp doesn't turn out to be evil.
Now the complicated part.
Thematically, the movie admittedly gets a lot more simplified at the movie as the Impending Crisis takes center stage and the messed up relationship of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence is forced down the road of reconciliation. Which is fine and the movie has to end somehow, but at the same time the themes of the story make a drastic turn which can understandably be off-putting to some.
My ado has been made about Pratt's character Jim choosing to wake up Lawrence's character Aurora, effectively condemning her to die alone with him on a ship with minimal means of other interaction. And it is indeed a massive ethical lapse on Jim's part and the movie put about as much effort as it can showing both Jim's struggle with it, and also the inevitable fallout once the Truth comes out.
And that theme of loneliness is front and center in the first and second acts of the film; and kudos on Pratt for an excellent performance. You can really buy into the depths of depressions he sinks to living an empty life alone, along with that lingering feeling of regret that bitters his happiness when he wakes Aurora. Similarly, Lawrence's own performance when she learns the truth, with a mix of disbelief, betrayal, sadness, and anger is great. Frankly the best role I've seen of hers (though there's gaps in what I've seen of her filmography so yeah).
Honestly, it's those first two acts that occupy my thoughts the most now thinking back on it. What I would do if I were in Jim's position, free of any kind of worry about any kind of external crisis. And with more than 50+ years to grapple with it, I'm not sure I wouldn't change my mind somewhere down the line. I'm not sure if anyone wouldn't change their mind.
I don't know. Maybe the writers wanted a happy ending. Maybe there was some editorial mandate. Maybe it's just supposed to be complex and messed up because the world is itself a messy, imperfect world. Maybe it's a reminder that "protagonist" does not have to entail "hero" and people are similarly flawed.
Ultimately I came out of the theater with a lot of complex feelings about Passengers, but that's a good thing. It sticks with me. Makes me think about myself, both my virtues and failings. What I'd do in that situation versus what others would. Definitely worth seeing for anyone up for these kinds of things.