OJ's Movie Review - Passengers

Get two of the most popular actors right now, put them on a spaceship together, and see what happens I guess.

 

Passengers stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as two passengers who have woken up from hibernation on a ship traveling across space to a new planet, they are the only two who have woken up, however, with about nine decades to go before the ship reaches the destination. I've been looking forward to this for a while; I'd heard about the popularity of the unmade script and the synopsis got me interested, I resisted reading the script but as bits of news trickled in, I kept interested, especially when Pratt and Lawrence were attached as I enjoy their work. 

   I'll start, as always, with what I enjoy and number one for me with that is the visuals. The design of the ship, both exterior and interior are amazing. It's a place I would love to visit, from the information interfaces to the architecture, I really enjoyed seeing that. The CGI is top-notch, I don't remember seeing any iffy effects so on that front it's great; they blended it well with real things as well, especially in a sequence (which was in the trailer) concerning a swimming pool and gravity, I thought it was a tense and well-done sequence. So all together I'd say that Passengers was, in general, a good-looking film. 

  What adds to that, of course, are its main leads. Chris Pratt doesn't do dramatic often but here he had to pull off some emotional scenes and I can't say he managed all of them successfully but he gave them a good shot and delivered some quite unexpected compelling series of events in the first act of the movie. Jennifer Lawrence appears alongside and she does just as you'd expect, she's a great actor, looks great, she did just fine in her role. She and Pratt had good chemistry, I thought and enjoyed seeing them together. An extra cast member includes Michael Sheen as the android, Arthur, and he was one of the best parts of the film for me. He was the source of the majority of humor and his constant positive personality was very entertaining.

  Plot-wise, I felt there were three defined parts to it. The first act, was my favorite, it gave off a cast-away vibe and you could feel the isolation, perhaps if they'd have stuck with that a bit longer it would've been a bit more impactful but it was certainly the best part of the film for me. The second act slowed down a little, it was exactly what I expected from the film, going in; Pratt and Lawrence being a couple onscreen and all that entails from flirting to getting-to-know-each-other and all that. Some plot developments did occur, though, and it started to get going again and I was genuinely surprised at one point and enjoyed a certain aspect which I won't spoil here. The third act though happened so suddenly, it was actually quite jarring. There was nothing wrong with it itself, just quite quick and almost predictable. 

   And that's the thing with Passengers, it's not a bad movie by any stretch, but it isn't mind-blowing either. We've seen almost every element before. It felt clean, it felt safe. It was innocuous. There were some twists and turns but you realize the trailer spoils a lot when you're watching the film. All-in-all, Passengers was just OK, and that's it. 

6.5/10

OJ's Movie Review - Rogue One

A Star Wars story like no other.

Rogue One is the first Star Wars Anthology film, it isn't an episode, it doesn't follow the lives of a Skywalker. In fact, as you probably know but I'll confirm here just in case: it takes place just before 1977's Episode IV: A New Hope. I've been looking forward to this film for a while because I'm a fan of director Gareth Edwards and this universe in general.
    I'll start by talking about the cast, the majority of which I didn't know. Felicity Jones leads with her character Jyn Erso and from the trailers I didn't particularly like what I saw; the character just didn't seem likable and to an extent that carried over into the film at the beginning, but then as time went on they laid out a plausible reason for her personality and I grew accustomed to it very quickly and it worked for the story; Felicity Jones does great in the role as I've enjoyed her performances before in films such as The Theory of Everything. Diego Luna's Cassian Andor was an interesting character to watch, his internal struggle with the moral gray area he operated in made for some compelling scenes and Diego's performance I thought was great as I've never seen his work before. Some other cast and character highlights were Alan Tudyk's hilarious droid K-2SO, he delivered some great lines, but they weren't cheap jokes or eye rolls, he's no Jar Jar Binks; even though he was the comedic relief he also served a purpose and could defend himself when needed. Donnie Yen's blind Chirrut Îmwue and his partner Baze were a very entertaining and sometimes quite touching duo who had some great action sequences between them.
     On a villain front, I have to say I really enjoyed Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic. He came across as a classic Star Wars baddie but brought something new in his disposition and line delivery. His own arc as well was a compelling one and in the end, after some thought, you start to feel sorry for this guy, especially in the context of the other films. Now of course Darth Vader turns up during the film and that's what a lot of people were excited about (including myself), and so I'll just say that he isn't in it much, which I'm fine with, but I know a lot of people wanted more of him....Although there a specific scene that he's in that people are going talk about for a long time. So in the end, I really enjoyed the cast, perhaps with the exception of Forest Whitaker, who did fine in his role, but his role wasn't really needed; it just felt like we'd missed something, like there was more of a story there but was cut.
  Now talking of story, Rogue One, is somewhat predictable in the main arc because you know what it's about, you've seen what takes place afterward, but finally knowing the specifics and details is a real treat, for the most part. The first third of the film is very choppy, we're suddenly moving from one location to another super quick setting up each character and situation and it's a bit messy. When the plot gets going, though, it really picks up and becomes an entertaining series of events following these characters, that lead to an epic climactic third act. A complaint the film has is that the majority of characters weren't fleshed out enough and so they didn't care about them but I didn't find that at all; sure we didn't really get to know their history and motivations but just with the time we did spend with them, I really felt for these people by the end, and the ending itself made me come away viewing these people in a different way.
   The final scenes of Rogue One is truly one of the most memorable moments I've had in a cinema. From the choices the film-writers make regarding the characters, to the final five minutes before credits roll, I have to say that Disney certainly is in a league of their own. Was the film perfect? No, not at all, there are things I haven't managed to touch on because of spoilers, but there are also amazing things I couldn't mention for the same reason. As a conclusion. I'll say that although it isn't as streamlined or grand as your main saga episodes, it brought something new to the table and it worked.

8/10