When the trailer for Passengers first came out, excitement followed and hinted at a movie which balanced science fiction, romance, drama and action. Starring two high-profile actors, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, Passengers came out December 21st, 2016 but was unable to compete with the suspenseful movie its own trailer presented.

Despite the marketing efforts done by Sony and the high-profile leads, Passengers was a major letdown and met with criticism. The story stemmed from an interesting idea, but the movie failed to live up to its potential. This “failure” can be traced back to a messy plot, dragged out romance, unnecessarily long introduction and a sloppy climax.

Passengers takes place on the Avalon, a star ship responsible for the transport of 5,000 passengers to colonize a new earth-like planet in a distant galaxy. The journey takes 12o years but Jim Preston (played by Chris Pratt) wakes up from hibernation 90 years early to find himself completely alone and unable to go back to sleep. He spends a year by himself where he contemplates suicide and struggles whether or not to wake up his beloved Aurora Lane (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and cure his loneliness. Meanwhile, the Avalon is slowly falling apart, endangering the thousands of sleeping passengers on board.

Passengers was entertaining, had amazing effects and believable characters but fell short when fully addressing the moral dilemma faced by the main character. There were many aspects of the movie that could have been done differently, but overall, the movie was unique and strayed away from the traditional happy ending. Despite its flaws, Passengers was an enjoyable film which raised a dynamic question of human nature and loneliness that it failed to answer.