By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Okay, moment of honesty here: do you ever enjoy hate-watching a movie, taking joy in its weird failures and insane character choices? It’s hard to explain to others, but sometimes the failure of one film (the bigger the budget, the better!) can be more entertaining than the successes of others. Case in point: Passengers is now streaming on Tubi, and watching Chris Pratt portray sci-fi’s most hatable hero is way more entertaining than we ever would have guessed.
Passengers
The plot of Passengers is, to be fair, no less crazy than any of the other bizarre genre offerings on Tubi. The action takes place on a sleeper ship transporting thousands of colonists to a new world, but an unexpected problem awakens one of the sleepers 90 years ahead of time. Left with the prospect of living out the rest of his life on his own (not counting the charming robot bartender), he ends up awakening a beautiful young sleeper in an act that effectively seals both of their fates for the rest of the film.
Considering what a big budget Passengers had (far more of a budget than most of the sci-fi films on Tubi), it has a relatively small cast. Chris Pratt (best known for Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World) plays the engineer woken up nearly a century early and Jennifer Lawrence (best known for the Hunger Games movies and, most recently, the raunchy comedy No Hard Feelings) plays his thawed out love interest. The rest of the main cast otherwise includes Michael Sheen (arguably best known for Masters of Sex and Good Omens) as a robot barman and Laurence Fishburne (best known for the Matrix trilogy) as the sleeper ship’s chief deck officer.
Despite all of the hate (more on that soon), Passengers earned a decent chunk of change. Against a budget of $110-$150 million, the film brought in $303.1 million at the box office. This is the kind of profit margin that might have merited a sequel, but that was impossible for two reasons: the film’s rather definitive ending and its absolutely brutal critical reception.
Way before Passengers landed on Tubi, critics decided this film was a certified stinker. It has a 30 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the general consensus is that the two leads work well together but that their solid chemistry wasn’t enough to save a flawed plot. That leads to a pretty big question: why do I want you to watch a sci-fi film that was absolutely savaged by most of the critics who watched it?
Hatewatch Chris Pratt
Hear me out: the joy of watching Passengers on Tubi is channeling your utter contempt and hatred for Chris Pratt’s character. The film’s plot revolves around his decision to willingly free another sleeper he has the hots for after he himself was awoken by accident. He straight up dooms this woman to a life of isolation and manipulated misery, and the movie asks us to unironically root for him, which is the genre equivalent of making the victim who hides his zombie bite the hero of a horror film.
Aside from its hate-watch vibes, Passengers offers sci-fi fans something that most Tubi films cannot: an interesting moral dilemma. It’s easy to hate Pratt’s selfish character, but you can’t watch this film without wondering what, exactly, you’d do in his situation. By the time the credits roll, you’ll have a much better idea of your own ethics and morals, making this a most unconventional way to learn some valuable things about yourself.
Finally, Passengers has plenty to love, starting with Michael Sheen’s relentlessly polite robot bartender (his presence is always–ahem–a good omen that a movie will be entertaining). The movie is also beautifully shot, and as mentioned before, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence have a solid chemistry that lights up their scenes together. And considering that the sci-fi genre is so crowded with sequels, prequels, and reboots, it’s genuinely fun to watch a movie trying to do something new.
Will all of that be enough to make Passengers a worthy Tubi experience, or is this one film that will put you back to sleep? You won’t know until you stream it for yourself. For maximum immersion, we recommend you emulate Pratt’s character and wake up your sleeping roommate so they are forced to watch the film alongside you.
