So, the other day, I found myself going down a bit of a mental rabbit hole. It started with a really specific image, you know how that happens sometimes? My brain just decided to fixate on the movie 'Passengers'. Specifically, that scene with Jennifer Lawrence in the bathing suit, by the spaceship pool.
I wasn't, like, actively looking for it or anything. It just sort of floated into my head. And my first thought was just about the visual. Sci-fi movie, cool spaceship, striking scene. Standard stuff. So, I started to play it back in my mind, trying to remember the details. Just a bit of a mental exercise, I suppose.
But as I was doing that, digging through what I remembered about 'Passengers', other things started to bubble up. The whole plot, man. And the more I thought about it, the more I remembered how off that whole movie felt to me. You got Chris Pratt's character, Jim, right? And he wakes up Jennifer Lawrence's character, Aurora. Not because her pod failed, no. He wakes her up because he's lonely. He basically dooms her to die on that ship with him, without her consent. That’s a pretty big deal.
They tried to spin it as this epic romance against the odds, but it always felt wrong. That foundation is just messed up. A relationship built on such a one-sided, frankly selfish, decision? It’s hard to get behind that. I even recall reading somewhere that Jennifer Lawrence herself wasn't too proud of that movie in hindsight. I think she mentioned her friend Adele told her not to do it or something along those lines. When your Grammy-winning mate tells you a script is a dud, maybe you listen.
The movie really tried to soften Jim's actions, make the audience okay with it, but that just muddled everything even more. It was a massive letdown, especially with the talent involved. So much potential, and then… that.
So, this whole process started with me just trying to recall a specific visual – the 'jennifer lawrence passengers bathing suit' moment. But it quickly turned into me remembering all the reasons why that film just didn't sit right with me. It’s funny how a single image can be tied to so much baggage.
That bathing suit scene might be memorable for its aesthetics, but now, for me, it's completely overshadowed by the problematic core of the story. My little mental deep dive didn't just bring back an image; it brought back all the disappointment I felt about that film. Just goes to show, sometimes you go looking for a simple visual, and you end up unpacking a whole lot more.
