This ride is not entirely without spectacle.
Director: Morten Tyldum
Cast: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Sheen
What's it about:
There are around 5,000 passengers and 200-odd crew members in 'hibernation' aboard the Starship Avalon, hurtling through space for 30 years. Their trip to an Earth-like planet called Homestead II is expected to be completed in 120 years. One of them, a mechanic, Jim Preston's (Pratt) pod malfunctions, causing him to awake 90 years too early.
The loneliness, which lasts a year, takes a toll on him and he decides to awaken another passenger, one he has fallen for, by going through her video logs. She, Aurora Lane, is a writer. When he does, he convinces her that her pod malfunctioned, too.
They soon fall in love, but by and by, she learns the truth of her 'awakening'. Trouble is, they cannot return to sleep. Do they fall apart or hold it together?
What's hot:
Visual effects and cinematography (watch out for that scene where they check out a giant star up close) ensures that the ride is not entirely without spectacle. However reined in the action in this film is, there's no dearth of drama. Pratt and Lawrence look good together and the build-up of the chemistry is believable.
What's not:
It's not the premise that's implausible, it's the idea that we need to travel light years away (not to mention the million problems that could inevitably occur regardless of the failsafes) to make it to another planet to inhabit. Set in the future, the classism (first hinted at, when Pratt tries to get a cup of coffee) tells us that no matter how advanced we get, some social evils are never going to leave us.
Moreover, I got the Titanic's Jack-and-Rose like romance feels, when Aurora mentions that they are the two most unlikeliest people to fall in love and when Jim is ready to give up his life to save Aurora. The trouble is, making a two-hour feature about two people falling in love in complete solitude with only an android bartender (superbly played by Sheen) as a moral compass (ironically), is a bit of a stretch when you kinda figure it out after Jim's first year awake.
The predictability aside, Fishburne's character is quite weakly etched and he's gone too soon.
What to do:
It's nothing like Gravity (the allusion is there), like The Martian (similar concept) or Interstellar (the motive for the journey) and so, despite some fine performances by the lead pair, it's not going to leave a lasting impact.
Rating: ***
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