8/10/2017

Jennifer Lawrence Opens Up About The 'Passengers' Backlash


Passengers had been a promising space romance long before Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt were named as its stars. Jon Spaihts' much-lauded script had attracted attention as a potential Titanic-level sci-fi hit, with a simple premise that was intriguing and perfect for just the right A-list duo. That's why it was a little surprising when it finally opened and the reviews were pretty harsh, with most of the criticism levied at the plot.

For those unaware, the film centers on a man who is a passenger on a 5,000 year interstellar journey to another planet, only to have a ship malfunction wake him from cryosleep early. Destined to die alone, he awakens a beautiful female passenger to spend the rest of his life with, dooming her to the same fate. The thing is, he doesn't tell her what he's done, hiding his guilt until long after they've already fallen in love. Well, she didn't have much say in the matter, did she? He's basically the only guy she'll ever know. Critics savaged it, a lot of them did, anyway. I found the film to be passable while acknowledging the very same problems others had with it.

Lawrence hasn't spoken about it at all, but she opened up with Vogue about some of the backlash, admitting she was caught a little offguard at the reaction...

"I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t spot it. I thought the script was beautiful — it was this tainted, complicated love story. It definitely wasn’t a failure. I’m not embarrassed by it by any means. There was just stuff that I wished I’d looked into deeper before jumping on."

She has no reason to be embarrassed. Lawrence and Pratt were, by far, the best thing about the movie, along with Morten Tyldum's polished direction. Besides, a nuance like that would have been tough to catch just from reading the script. You kind of needed to see it played out to get the full effect.

In the end, Passengers did fairly well, earning $300M worldwide. It wasn't the blockbuster some had hoped for, though.