Passengers

Crusoe and Girl Friday. Pretty much reviled by professional critics, Passengers has overcome that to hold affection with a good portion of the sci-fi loving public. More safe sci-fi footings than anything remotely ground breaking, it ends up a a tidy romantic piece that's laced with pertinent questions involving man and his/her reactions to extraordinary scenario's. Although the viewer is for the most part hankering for action to explode off the screen, it's only when - in the film's last quarter - you realise that it was actually working fine as a character study without the fireworks. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence have bunches of charisma, in fact more than enough to carry the story through its more shaky elements. They in turn are aided by Michael Sheen who is perfectly cast as the Android (not Robot!) bartender Arthur. The effects work is impressive and director Morten Tyldum stitches the set pieces together admirably, the highlight being a rather superb gravity loss sequence. While the sound mix is also to be applauded. Newcomers should expect a Robinson Crusoe love story in space as opposed to a sci-fi actioner, though one with more cerebral strains than at first hinted, because then the pic delivers a good time and adds to what is turning out to be a rather great decade for sci-fi fans. 7/10