7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers and a single passenger is awakened 90 years early.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Andy GarciaAdventure | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 84% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
French (Canada): DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In an ever-connected and "smaller" world that is supposedly bringing people closer together than ever before, it seems like stories of isolation, and the emotional consequences thereof, are becoming increasingly more popular. One of the genre's grandaddies is The Shining, a film to which Passengers gives a respectful nod that runs throughout the entire film. Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis explored the concept in Cast Away. But lately it's the Science Fiction (or Science Fact, as the case may be with some of them) genre that's taken the reigns and taken charge of telling stories not only about living alone, but exploring the repercussions thereof. Oblivion, The Martian, and Moon have, in recent years, placed man much farther away from others, the former taking on a more action-heavy approach and the latter two more impactful, and better, films that take the focus away from guns and special effects and find greater purpose in their more dramatically oriented approaches. The genre seems a natural fit, allowing the exploration of concepts and environments and physical challenges to which the audience cannot easily relate to add greater tension while at the same time digging into the core human condition that translates no matter the time or place, be it in an isolated hotel or island, a nearby celestial body, or in deep space some decades or maybe even centuries into the future. Passengers pits two laymen, essentially, against the scale, scope, technology, and fundamental emotional turmoil of operating and maintaining a deep space cruiser, akin to taking today's average guy off the street and tasking him to to do the same onboard a space shuttle. It's not easy (although de facto cavemen have been known to pilot Harriers in battle against an advanced alien civilization, so maybe anything is possible). Passengers certainly doesn't live up to the character building and problem solving excellence of The Martian or the hefty dramatic impact and beautifully balanced complexity-simplicity of Moon, but it's a mostly enjoyable time killer that demands some suspension of disbelief and that plays with a bit of romance and excitement amidst an almost painfully predictable plot.
Alone.
Passengers was digitally photographed. The image is meticulously clean, particularly considering the extraordinarily sleek and classy production design that blends clean, cool surfaces with flashy technological marvels dotted around the ship. Colors are mostly cool. Most of the ship's main areas are sleek metallic shades of blue and gray, though there are bars and restaurant areas, as well as colorful holographic games, that offer splashes of color and plenty of impressive color depth as well. Rich reds and ambers, for example, define the bar that's practically straight out of The Shining. A deep blue color introduced around the 70-minute mark is also a standout. Black levels are terrific, too, whether the blackness of space or shadowy details within the starship in lower light areas. Details are excellent. The ship's clean interiors shine, and while they're smooth and slick, they're supposed to be. The image is impeccably sharp, showing no softness or smudginess in any corner. Skin and clothing textures are complex and highly detailed, though as is becoming the case it's easy to spot where skin complexities are lacking compared to what 4K resolution can produce, even before watching the companion UHD disc. Still, this is about top-of-the-line for a 1080p presentation. Noise is practically nonexistent, there are no unsightly compression artifacts. It's everything one could want in an A-list new release.
While Sony's UHD release of Passengers contains a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, the studio's standard Blu-ray release features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack (other studios don't have a problem with this...come on, Sony). That said, the 5.1 track is fine, excellent, really, though even, as with the video quality, as the track excels, there are moments when the opportunity for a greater sound field are obvious. Music is terrific, effortlessly spaced and nuanced where the finest airy notes or the heaviest low end pulses are equally balanced and detailed. Wrap into the back is seamless, too, and the track's immersive benefits are obvious. There's strong transitional heft as the starship lumbers across the screen and through space early on and there's a range of activity as she traverses through that fateful asteroid field. The low end can get a little rattly at the bottom, but the sheer scale and mass more than makes up for it. Additional powerful chaos dots the final act, too, and the track has no problems throwing its weight around. While the Atmos track offers a more aggressive posture and fullness in the biggest action scenes, its in the smaller moments where its would-be benefits seem lacking. Even as ship wide announcements or other larger interior effects like alarms are diffuse about the stage, the 5.1 track can't quite recreate the vastness of the ship's common areas and make the sound seem to emanate from a wider and higher location. Smaller, localized effects fare well, such as swooshing doors or smaller little computer beeps and bloops. Dialogue carries much of the film, and it's reproduced with a lifelike sheen and plays with natural center-front positioning and effortless prioritization even through some of the third act action din.
Passengers contains deleted scenes and several supplements. A UV digital copy code is included with purchase.
Passengers is a good movie that offers an interesting proposition: it demands that the audience both engage the brain and leave the brain at the door. There's some very good exploration here, a fairly deep analysis of the human condition in isolation in its opening act. Act two is much of the same with a big, obvious turning point looming large, and act three is the usual action-oriented turn that's well staged but so predictable it's practically boring and all but erases the first act's excellence from the audience's mind. Still, Passengers makes for a decent watch and a movie that could have been spectacular had the writers let the creative juices flow a bit more freely. Sony's 1080p Blu-ray release offers excellent video, a high end 5.1 lossless soundtrack (the studio is again refusing to offer the higher end soundtrack on the lower end Blu-ray), and a few supplements. Worth a look.
2014
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