Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt as star-crossed lovers in space,there’s a lot riding on Passengers. Will it ascend to the box-office heavens?Some might say that the era of the big budget romance died when Pearl Harbor took a critical drubbing in 2001. And yet James Cameron’s Avatar proved beyond doubt seven years ago that audiences will still sign up for a obliging mature-fashioned cherish story, if there’s plenty of spectacle among the lingering glances. By somehow managing to bring together the kind of filmgoer who will pay to see an alien movie with those who would rather spend their final dollar on a late-night screening of The Notebook (as well as looping in some brilliantly synapse-boggling 3D), or Cameron briefly appeared to have single-handedly rescued Hollywood from certain doom.
But while Pearl Harbor would never have existed without the success of Cameron’s Titanic four years previously,Avatar’s imitators have largely chosen to focus on the movie’s groundbreaking stereoscopic effects rather than copy its preposterous blend of sci-fi and romance. And who can blame them, given that Hollywood and space have a troubled history stretching all the way back to studios’ clunky attempts to mimic the extraordinary success of Star Wars in 1977? The fact that Disney came a cropper far more recently with the similarly pitched John Carter will not have inspired confidence. Related: Jennifer Lawrence to be paid $8m more than Chris Pratt for Passengers Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com