Passengers

Truly awful sci fi with no redeeming factor to it other than it has Jennifer Lawrence
and Larry Fishburne in it - both of whom have made infinitely better films than this

The pods were stolen from Alien - the bar was stolen from The Shining - the body scans were stolen from Prometheus
The rescue was stolen from 200I A Space Odyssey - yet despite all this it isnt remotely comparable to any of these films

What man buys a woman a wedding ring just because they are glad not to be spending the next 89 years all on their own ?
A spaceship flying right next to a star would be melted in a nanosecond not allowed to just carry on as if wasnt even there

Easily one of the worst films I have ever seen in my whole life - Jennifer and Larry what the hell were you thinking ?
And Michael Sheen - why were you in this ? You all can - and actually have - done so much better than this [ 6 / I00 ]

Couldn’t disagree more.

surreptitious57 wrote:
Passengers

Truly awful sci fi with no redeeming factor to it other than it has Jennifer Lawrence
and Larry Fishburne in it - both of whom have made infinitely better films than this

The pods were stolen from Alien - the bar was stolen from The Shining - the body scans were stolen from Prometheus
The rescue was stolen from 200I A Space Odyssey - yet despite all this it isnt remotely comparable to any of these films

What man buys a woman a wedding ring just because they are glad not to be spending the next 89 years all on their own ?
A spaceship flying right next to a star would be melted in a nanosecond not allowed to just carry on as if wasnt even there

Easily one of the worst films I have ever seen in my whole life - Jennifer and Larry what the hell were you thinking ?
And Michael Sheen - why were you in this ? You all can - and actually have - done so much better than this [ 6 / I00 ]

i wouldn't hold it up as the most incredible piece of sci-fi film-making in the last 10 years...but really?

and i think you've missed the point of the bar...

oh, and it's a disservice to him to disregard Chris Pratt like that...unless you were unsure which of the current acting 'chris's he was...

And saying about the spaceship what would be the case now kind of misses the entire point of sci-fi. It’s like saying they shouldn’t beam people down in Star Wars because they wouldn’t reconstitute on the other side. Obviously, because it’s science fiction.

I blurred my vision so as to avoid spoilers (Passengers), so idk what to take from either side. However, the DVR says it's going to record it for me on Monday, so... yay?

oh, god, tell me she didn't....

Run, Fall, Run !!!

felltoearth wrote:

Fallible wrote:And saying about the spaceship what would be the case now kind of misses the entire point of sci-fi. It’s like saying they shouldn’t beam people down in Star Wars because they wouldn’t reconstitute on the other side. Obviously, because it’s science fiction.

Oh come on, Dumbledore beamed all over the place in Star Wars.

And it turned out it he was the Russian spy.

Probably should have spoilered that.

Is Black Books based on this?

aban57 wrote:Run, Fall, Run !!!

i'll let her off, she's had a rotten day...

I'll just store it up for when she feels better...

felltoearth wrote:

Fallible wrote:And saying about the spaceship what would be the case now kind of misses the entire point of sci-fi. It’s like saying they shouldn’t beam people down in Star Wars because they wouldn’t reconstitute on the other side. Obviously, because it’s science fiction.

Fuck.

UncertainSloth wrote:

aban57 wrote:Run, Fall, Run !!!

i'll let her off, she's had a rotten day...

I'll just store it up for when she feels better...

Did I say that when I was talking to you about it before I posted?

It's in multiple quotes, Fallible. It's forever. Unless the site "crashes" again.

I was just testing you, you see. Making sure you were paying attention. Well done everyone, you passed.

Chris Pratt was disregarded because I have only ever seen him in one other film - Her - and that just was a minor role
Until I googled him I could not think of any other film he has made so unlike Jennifer and Larry he is not a name to me

I have been thinking of all the major sci fi films that I have seen in the last twenty years and this is easily the worst one
Sci fi by default is a serious genre so making romantic sci fi is never going to work as those two are simply incompatible

I absolutely loved Solaris a very deep and subtle film about attraction to something that is not what it seems
And Oblivion which I have now seen four times which also deals with identity and has Larry Fishburne in it too
Now both of these films have a romantic element but unlike Passengers it is dealt with seriously as it should be

Even Prometheus which is not universally liked - even here - is a way better film - I have seen that four times as well
And Star Trek which is not that serious was a far superior film and despite having Simon Pegg in it was still watchable
Even the truly awful and hyped up to infinity Hunger Games - also with Jennifer Lawrence - is superior to Passengers

I absolutely loved Jennifer in Silver Linings Playbook - the film she won her Oscar for at only twenty two the second youngest age for a female actor to win the award [ Marlee Matlin won it at twenty one for Children Of A Lesser God ]
and the equally brilliant film she made after it American Hustle - I have seen Playbook three times and Hustle twice
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer gel so seamlessly in both of them

And Larry Fishburne only had a cameo in Predators but yet his few scenes were easily the best in the entire film
As for The Matrix well his Morpheus was one of the best characters ever in all of sci fi and even all of cinema too

I suppose all actors make a turkey at least once in their lifetime since they dont have absolute control over what they do
So I will cut Jennifer and Larry some slack while hoping neither of them make anything as awful as Passengers ever again

Saying all of this to give context to my original post and why I said what I did given my view on the film is the minority one
It is however just my own subjective opinion so I dont expect agreement but still felt that some clarification was necessary
I will say no more as its not worth the mental effort as the subject matter is not that serious in the grand scheme of things

he may not be a name to you, but he is still an actor and deserves recognition

i have no issue with your opinion, it's all subjective at the end of the day, i'm simply discussing the film to explore your opinion of it further

apart from the inclusion of a romantic theme in a sci-fi film (i could take issue with a few points there - so you're saying romance can never be serious? that all sci-fi is, by default, serious? whose definitions are you laying out here?)

to my mind, you're coming in with a very cold, hard sci-fi view and i can think of a few films where sci-fi and 'romance' blend together incredibly well - melancholia, never let me go, upstream colour, the lobster, another earth are the ones that come to mind at 1am

i'm not having a pop - i don't think passengers is the epitome of brilliance and i think it definitely suffers from the re-editing that changed the whole context of the film from something much, much, darker - iirc, this was studio interference

it's a popcorn flick, really, but it's not a stinker, a turd, a turkey...it's a high-budget outer limits/twilight zone episode if anything

oh, and you haven't mentioned the bar scene in your response - if you can bear it, watch the scene again - it's positively leaking references to the shining....

oh, and prometheus is ace - apart from one bit which sticks in my craw...

and i know what it's like to have nobody agree with you, i love the happening...

Science fiction deals with the future and as the future is by default unknowable then the negative mindset will prevail
This is a simple fact of human nature and is the reason why the best sci fi is at worst apocalyptic and at best ambiguous

I think that the purpose of all art including cinema is to reflect the human condition in all of its confusion
I do not think its purpose is to provide substance free entertainment for the masses beyond a certain age

I want art to challenge me not make me feel all warm and fuzzy so when I see art not doing this then I somehow feel cheated
I have zero problem with anyone who thinks my view is wrong but I can only see the world through my eyes and no one elses

Science fiction has one great adavantage over historical and contemporary fiction in that it is not limited by what is known
It can push the boundaries right to the edge of human imagination and even try to address and solve any potential futures

At the grand old age of fifty six I demand all my art to be serious and science fiction is therefore zero exception
The deeper and darker the art that I access the more satisfying it is to me both intellectually and psychologically

I am specifically referring to literature and cinema here but literature more sosimply because it has fewer limitations
So the very worst thing to expose me to is art which is not serious - this is why I reject romance and horror and fantasy

This is why absolutely everything I read and watch as cinema has to be of a certain standard otherwise its not worth my time
I am just one point on the spectrum and my opinion matters only to me but this is where I am at at this point in my existence

I feel over time new mental pathways are opening up allowing me to access art I have never been exposed to before
Being in the autumn or winter of my life means that I cannot afford to be accessing anything that does not push me

You may think that I am being a little bit obsessive about all this but this is just me being me and so it is perfectly natural
I have a boring but relatively easy life so pushing myself in this way gives it some purpose and challenges my comfort zone

I have probably not replied the way you wanted me to but I think I have demonstrated my modus operandi even more so
I never expect anyone to agree with me but hope you can at least understand where I am coming from at some base level

This has to be my last post here as this is meant to be a fun thread and my responses here are anything but funny