Poetic Film Review: Passengers (2016)

In starry vastness, a ship does sail,
The Avalon, with dreams that prevail,
A journey long, of 120 years' might,
To a new home, where colonists take flight.

But Jim Preston, an engineer so fine,
Awakens early, to a fate divine,
90 years too soon, he's left to roam,
Alone on the ship, with no one to call home.

He wanders, lost, in luxury's cold grasp,
Haunted by loneliness, and a heart that claps,
For Aurora, a writer, in hibernation deep,
He falls in love, in a most troubled sleep.

A drastic choice, he makes, to awaken her too,
A morally questionable act, with consequences anew,
A theme of Robinson Crusoe, in space does unfold,
Where technology's comfort, can't replace human gold.

The film, a drama, with thriller's disguise,
Sold as a romance, with clichés that compromise,
The casting of stars, with beauty to abide,
A predictable love story, that does not subside.

But beneath the surface, lies a darker tale,
Of patriarchy, sexism, and abuse that does prevail,
The director's vision, blinded by the sci-fi dream,
Ignoring the issues, that the screenplay does seem.

Visually stunning, the film does impress,
But the eerie atmosphere, is lost in emptiness,
Influences from Kubrick, in the bartender's guise,
Echoes of The Shining, in a futuristic, polished surprise.

The ending rushed, with deus ex machina's might,
A disappointing conclusion, to a film that took flight,
Passengers, a disappointment, in recent cinema's sea,
A story of ideas, misguided, and tragically set free.

(Note: The review in its original form can be read here.)

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