| Review:
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Passengers is directed by Rodrigo Garcia. The film
stars Anne Hathaway, Andre Braugher, Clea DuVall, David
Morse, Dianne Wiest, and William B. Davis. Ed Shearmur contributes
the musical score. ***
Five survivors of a plane crash are in therapy sessions,
trying to cope with the difficulties of what they have just
gone through. Just when it looks like things may be getting
back to normal, therapy members begin to disappear. The
therapist finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy, with
which the airline itself may or may not be involved – and
against an airline employee’s better wishes, she delves
deeper in an effort to discover the truth. ***
Suspense movies like this have been done to death in
recent years, and while Passengers has a lot going for it,
the movie never really brings anything new to the table.
The supposed twists are predictable, and the characters
lack any real depth. The attempts to build up these characters
never really work, and as a whole, this just comes off feeling
like “yet another suspense thriller.” ***
Where I won’t argue with the film, though, is Anne Hathaway.
She has consistently proven herself to be one of the best
actresses of recent years, even if the source material isn’t
always20the best. This is Hathaway doing what she does best,
and doing as good a job as she can do with the role she
has been given. The entire cast is talented and does a decent-enough
job, but this is Hathaway’s film. Her performance is what
you’re going to remember when the film is all said and done,
even if you find the end result of this movie to be forgettable.
***
In the end, there’s not much that can be said about
Passengers. It’s a competent thriller, nothing less, nothing
more. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table as far
as thrillers go, but the weaknesses aren’t quite heavy enough
that it becomes a “bad” film. A marginal recommendation
for the curious, or for fans of this genre. Just don’t come
in here expecting to be blown away. ---
Image and Sound:
Even though my opinion of the film wasn’t too strong,
there is no arguing with the quality of this Blu-Ray transfer.
Sony has created a transfer here that, to put it in the
simplest terms possible, will not fail to please. It’s a
rather drab color pallet, but that’s obviously the film
crew’s intentions. Fine object detail and facial textures
are very strong, and as far as I can tell, no digital noise
reduction or any other sort of detracting so-called enhancements
were used. This is a gorgeous 1080p transfer, and it’s hard
to argue with how good this movie looks in Blu. ***
Lossless audio only adds to the greatness of the image
quality. This TrueHD track really comes to life in certain
scenes of the movie (I’m not going to spoil which ones for
those who haven’t seen the film yet), and when the movie
comes to life, this track will give your speakers a workout.
Long story short, audio and visual-wise alike, Sony has
made Passengers look and sound pretty damn good in HD. ---
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| Special
Features: |
Fortunately, this isn’t disc isn’t embarking on a bare-bones
flight – there are some passengers aboard. First and foremost
is a director/actor commentary. They go in depth with many
details of the filmmaking process, including interactions
between cast/crew/etc. and the original script. I found
this more interesting than I find most commentaries – astonishing
considering I wasn’t a fan of the film. Two mid-length featurettes
follow, one dealing largely with cast and crew and the other
with special effects. Again, I found these more interesting
than the actual film itself. Topping things off is three
deleted scenes, and while rightfully cut from the film,
they will entertain any fan of the film wanting more movie.
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