Passengers

I have had the best winter break ever, spending the majority of my time in darkened theaters.  In fact, in between Christmas and New Year's Day I saw ten movies (including La La Land for the third time and Rogue One for the third time).  I will write about them this week and I'll start with Passengers, which all of the girls in my family saw downtown at the Gateway the day after Christmas.  I found this movie to be incredibly entertaining and we all really enjoyed it.  Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is in suspended animation aboard the starship Avalon on a journey to the colony Homestead II when a catastrophic event inadvertently awakens him 90 years too early.  The starship is equipped with every conceivable luxury (for the passengers to enjoy after they awaken three months prior to landing) and, at first, Jim enjoys himself.  He tries to figure out how to put himself back into suspended animation but soon realizes that there is no way.  He does, however, learn how to awaken others.   Distraught at the thought of living out his life alone, he becomes obsessed with passenger Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) and makes the agonizing decision to wake her up.  As they grow closer, the ship begins to slowly malfunction.  Will Aurora learn of Jim's duplicity in her awakening?  Will they be able to repair the malfunctioning ship?  This is a sleek and stylized sci-fi thriller with incredible special effects, especially the pool scene when the ship loses gravity, but the romance is also quite affecting due to the chemistry between Pratt and Lawrence. I also really enjoyed Michael Sheen's performance as Arthur, a droid bartender (the scenes where Jim talks to Arthur reminded me of similar scenes in The Shining).  My Mom, my sisters, Tashena and I had a great time watching this movie and I recommend it for what it is: escapist entertainment (If you want a more philosophical exploration of space travel, see Arrival).