Dusting Off The Shelf: Letter P

22 Apr

I’m a little late on this weeks DVD post but in my defense I have been catching up on a few NetFlix marathons I’m behind on. Surprisingly, I have a lot of options for the letter P in my collection that I have never seen. But I opted to see the most recent one because I needed to know if what I’d heard was true/as bad as I’d been told.

Synopsis: An incident causes a passenger on a longterm space colonization ship to be awoken several years early.

OK, so a little more detail- 5000+ people are in hibernation as their ship on autopilot travels to a planet they are to colonize. Of course there are flaws to autopilot and after a bit of a bump in the road, so to speak, one passenger wakes up early and has to deal with the implications of that. Later on, he and another early riser have to go above and beyond to save the ship from catastrophe.

Why I chose this film: Originally, I wanted to see it as a) I adore Chris Pratt and b) recent space films have had amazing visuals and from what I could see in the ads, this one was going to as well. Then… I heard all these comments about there being a rapey plot and I put it on the backburner. But I still needed to see it because I needed to know. I put it off long enough.

Also, while at WonderCon recently we sat in on a panel talking about the science of things and someone asked a few questions about this film. The panelists had some interesting answers and that reminded me that I was interested in seeing this one.

Will I watch it again: Short answer- probably, yes.

OK, so I know people will judge me for this but while I thought that what Jim (Chris Pratt) did to Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) was wrong, I didn’t get rapey vibes. What I got was someone being alone and needing real person companionship. I mean, if the character hadn’t agonized over his decision, I might think differently, but the way he did… I can’t say that I wouldn’t do the same thing in that position, you know? And for rapey vibes he would’ve jumped her right away and that’s not what happened.

It is by far not the best movie ever, and the story has been told before. But I liked it overall.

I really did think about how I would react in this situation as I watched… and honestly, I can’t say I wouldn’t have woken someone up, too. I mean, what would you do if you were basically trapped for the rest of your life alone?

And considering what happened next, I think it was for the best, even if it was for selfish reasons initially. Couldn’t have survived without that second pair of hands.

Why you should watch it too (or run far away!): I’ve mentioned that rapey plot point a bit because the early reviews were all about it and I think it tainted viewers. It did for me, at least somewhat. So you should see it if you can get past that- I promise, it isn’t a good description of what happens. But I know there are some people who can’t get passed that so I recommend they don’t even bother because they’ll be grumpy and not even give it a chance.