History YMMV / Passengers2016

** Once Jim's decision to [[spoiler:wake Aurora]] comes to light, the film has several interesting directions it can go in but [[spoiler:ultimately reduces this action to a ''very'' dark ThirdActMisunderstanding when Aurora chooses to take him back.]] Some reviews pointed out that the story would have worked very well as a thriller or a horror movie with [[spoiler:Jim as a villain driven mad by isolation, snapping after the only other person on board shuns him]]. Alternately, some felt that a better direction for Jim would be to [[spoiler:actually [[RedemptionEqualsDeath die fixing the ship]], thus allowing Aurora to forgive him and causing Jim to be effectively punished for what he did, so she would not pursue a relationship with him]].

** Who'd have thought the plot of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Just the Two of Us" (guy arranges it so that the girl he likes will be trapped with him in a world where they're the only two people around, only for her to eventually snap and turn on him) would get made into a feature film years later?

* WTHCastingAgency:
** [[spoiler:Creator/AndyGarcia]] was barely featured and given essentially a glorified cameo.
** For some, Creator/ChrisPratt, best known as DeadpanSnarker {{Man Child}}ren, was not the right choice for the role of Jim, especially since none of his strengths are played to at all in the movie.
** Some even thought this was also a case for Creator/JenniferLawrence, who's best known for playing characters with deep emotional life, doesn't seem to fit playing a lonely and career-driven romantic lead Aurora.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The Movie (TM). There are a number of ways to tell a story like this. One could do an accident or unwitting psychological experiment perpetrated on both characters (including BlackComedy), or the popular idea of a thriller from Aurora's point-of-view. The one the filmmakers chose was building the film around the POV character committing a premeditated, sexually-motivated MoralEventHorizon act. Even good chemistry and performances from the big-name leads, a high eight-figures marketing budget and an ideal holiday release date couldn't bring in ''close'' to what the studio wanted in domestic box office. Most marketing indicating it was the first option, an accident for ''both'' characters, didn't help. See TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot below, as many people consider the plot fixable with minor rewrites.

* BetterThanCanon:
** Quite a few reviewers seem to have had the idea that if Jim [[spoiler:were to die]] during the finale, Aurora would've been forced into the very same situation he was in at the beginning (wake up another passenger or spend the rest of her life alone), which would've been all kinds of sad, deep, and/or interesting. This actually went to the point where fans were able to re-edit the film using existing footage to take Aurora's point of view, beginning with her waking up, meeting Jim, beginning a relationship with him, then discovering the truth, and then flashing back to Jim's time alone (the original beginning), then having Jim die and Aurora now being faced with the same choice he did. You can see a whole video essay on the subject [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gksxu-yeWcU here.]][[https://youtu.be/5zjNGKZPY5w This alternate ending fanvid]] by one iBrews is regarded as a superior ending to the actual ending, judging from the comments and so on.
** Alternatively, [[spoiler:Aurora could have been awoken by the ship on accident, just like Jim was]]. That one change might have taken the bad taste out of many viewers' mouths. Hell, [[TrailersAlwaysLie this was the ACCIDENTAL impression]] that most people got from the trailers, until the truth got out and [[BoxOfficeBomb people refused to see it]].
** Yet another camp was okay with most of the movie but would change the ending by removing [[spoiler:Aurora's choice of going back to sleep and not taking Jim back right after the danger was over]]. It would have brought the movie closer to an actual exploration of loneliness by showing how she would've dealt with the situation with a clear head.
** As detailed under WhatCouldHaveBeen on the Trivia page, the original DarkerAndEdgier ending featured [[spoiler:the ship ejecting all of the passengers after the ship reboots, thinking they've arrived and initiating the docking procedures. While it would've made for an incredibly DownerEnding, this would also justify Aurora deciding to take Jim back, since if he hadn't woken her up then she would have died with all of the other passengers]].

* OvershadowedByControversy: [[spoiler:Jim waking up Aurora]] and the consequent [[spoiler:falling in love]] had people more upset than anything else in the film. Hell, most of the tropes on this page and in the main page paint this plot point in various negative lights, such as [[spoiler:StockholmSyndrome]]. Critics were so disgusted by this turn of events that they deliberately spoiled the film's plot in their reviews and asked readers not to see the film, [[BoxOfficeBomb which worked]].

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Jim is nominally the hero of our story, but [[spoiler:due to his deliberately waking Aurora for purely selfish reasons, one might have a hard time sympathizing with him]]. To make it worse, numerous viewers pointed out that even the film as released, with just ''minor'' editing of the order of scenes (the second act becomes the first, while the first becomes the second), can still make him a sympathetic character, despite his actions.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Jim is nominally the hero of our story, but [[spoiler:due to his deliberately waking Aurora for purely selfish reasons, one might have a hard time sympathizing with him.]]

* BrokenBase: The plot point of Jim choosing to [[spoiler:wake Aurora up from her hypersleep]]. Many attacked the movie over this, finding it to be horribly creepy as an act done by a protagonist we're [[DesignatedHero intended to root for]]. ''Especially'' after essentially stalking her by watching her videos and looking at her while she was asleep. On the other hand, the movie does ''not'' ignore the ethical issues of the act. Jim angsts over it for most of the movie and acknowledges how wrong it was. It is also worth noting that Jim spends the first thirty minutes of the film essentially going mad from loneliness over the course of a year, so a valid argument can be made that he was not entirely in his right mind when doing so. Jim already attempted to ''commit suicide'' at least once before he made his fateful decision, something that is rarely brought up and makes the accusations of misogyny leveled against the plot carry disturbing undertones of [[MenAreTheExpendableGender male disposability]] themselves. However, Jim being aware of how wrong his actions were does not make them any less bad, which still creates unpleasant implications if they are too easily handwaved away. Jim still effectively [[spoiler: stole Aurora's future and had sex with her under very dubious consent.]] Aurora chooses to forgive him in the end, and the film writes it as a romantic happy ending, but many audience members were not convinced.

* UnfortunateImplications: Many [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/15/passengers-review-spaceship-romcom-scuppered-chris-pratt-jennifer-lawrence reviews]] pointed out issues that [[spoiler:Jim essentially stalking Aurora and then dooming her to a life where he is literally her ''only'' option for human interaction whether she likes him or not, is prime fodder for this trope and yet he's still meant to be the hero, and them getting together is still meant to be happy.]]

* WhatAnIdiot: Jim telling his secret to Arthur, who, as a robot, has no incentive of keeping it a secret. Had Jim just kept it to himself, he and Aurora could have likely lived the rest of their relationship in blissful ignorance, assuming Jim never intended to reveal the truth to her.

** The plot and its UnfortunateImplications aside, the score by Thomas Newman is nothing short of ''amazing''. From the similarly lonely vibes given in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpbecwRH6s "The Starship Avalon (Main Title)"]] to the intensity of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtb4RAkk9dI "Zero-Gravity"]], it's just a wonderful score that deserves its Oscar nomination. Oh, and special mention goes to the outright ''beautiful'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dAHT9TaHb4 "Starlit"]].

** The Creator/FrederikPohl short story ''The Fiend'' also has the sole awake occupant (the Captain) of a colony ship waking up a beautiful (and completely nude) female passenger out of loneliness. However, the passenger understandably spends the whole time screaming at the Captain that he is a pervert and will be criminally charged for this. The Captain puts her back to sleep and sure enough, he’s arrested and sentenced to having his brain used as the piloting system for a different starship, [[AndIMustScream making him even more lonely]].

* BrokenBase: The plot point of Jim choosing to [[spoiler:wake Aurora up from her hypersleep]]. Many attacked the movie over this, finding it to be horribly creepy as an act done by a protagonist we're [[DesignatedHero intended to root for]]. ''Especially'' after essentially stalking her by watching her videos and looking at her while she was asleep. On the other hand, the movie does ''not'' ignore the ethical issues of the act. Jim angsts over it for most of the movie and acknowledges how wrong it was. It is also worth noting that Jim spends the first thirty minutes of the film essentially going mad from loneliness over the course of a year, so a valid argument can be made that he was not entirely in his right mind when doing so. However, Jim being aware of how wrong his actions were does not make them any less bad, which still creates unpleasant implications if they are too easily handwaved away. Jim still effectively [[spoiler: stole Aurora's future and had sex with her under very dubious consent.]] Aurora chooses to forgive him in the end, and the film writes it as a romantic happy ending, but many audience members were not convinced.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The Movie (TM). There are a number of ways to tell a story like this. One could do an accident or unwitting psychological experiment perpetrated on both characters (including BlackComedy), or the popular idea of a thriller from Aurora's point-of-view. The one the filmmakers chose was building the film around the POV character committing a premeditated, sexually-motivated MoralEventHorizon act. Even good chemistry and performances from the big-name leads, a high eight-figures marketing budget and an ideal holiday release date couldn't bring in ''close'' to what the studio wanted in domestic box office.
** Most marketing indicating it was the first option, an accident for ''both'' characters, didn't help.
** See TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot below, as many people consider the plot fixable with minor rewrites.

* RonTheDeathEater: Quite a few reviewers have interpreted Jim [[spoiler:waking up Aurora]] as a MoralEventHorizon and actively wish for his death. While the film doesn't portray his actions as right, it doesn't pretend he's an egomaniac rapist either. Gus pretty much spells this out for the audience when he likens Jim's predicament to a drowning man.

** The Creator/FrederikPohl short story ''The Fiend'' also has the sole awake occupant (the Captain) of a colony ship waking up a beautiful (and completely nude) female passenger out of loneliness. However, the passenger understandably spends the whole time screaming at the Captain that he is a pervert and will be criminally charged for this. The Captain puts her back to sleep and sure enough, he’s caught and sentenced to have his brain removed and used to pilot a different starship, [[AndIMustScream making him even more lonely]].

* The Creator/FederikPohl short story ''The Fiend'' also has the sole awake occupant (the Captain) of a colony ship waking up a beautiful (and completely nude) female passenger out of loneliness. However, the passenger understandably spends the whole time screaming at the Captain that he is a pervert and will be criminally charged for this. The Captain puts her back to sleep and sure enough, he’s caught and sentenced to have his brain removed and used to pilot a different starship, [[AndIMustScream making him even more lonely]].

* BetterThanCanon: [[https://youtu.be/5zjNGKZPY5w This alternate ending fanvid]] by one iBrews is regarded as a superior ending to the actual ending, judging from the comments and so on.

** Quite a few reviewers seem to have had the idea that if Jim [[spoiler:were to die]] during the finale, Aurora would've been forced into the very same situation he was in at the beginning (wake up another passenger or spend the rest of her life alone), which would've been all kinds of sad, deep, and/or interesting.
** This actually went to the point where fans were able to re-edit the film using existing footage to take Aurora's point of view, beginning with her waking up, meeting Jim, beginning a relationship with him, then discovering the truth, and then flashing back to Jim's time alone (the original beginning), then having Jim die and Aurora now being faced with the same choice he did. You can see a whole video essay on the subject [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gksxu-yeWcU here.]]
** Alternatively, [[spoiler:Aurora could have been awoken by the ship on accident, just like Jim was]]. That one change might have taken the bad taste out of many viewers' mouths. Hell, [[TrailersAlwaysLie this was the ACCIDENTAL impression]] that most people got from the trailers, until the truth got out and [[BoxOfficeBomb people refused to see it]].

** Yet another camp was okay with most of the movie but would change the ending by removing [[spoiler:Aurora's choice of going back to sleep and not taking Jim back right after the danger was over]]. It would have brought the movie closer to an actual exploration of loneliness by showing how she would've dealt with the situation with a clear head.
** As detailed under WhatCouldHaveBeen on the Trivia page, the original DarkerAndEdgier ending featured [[spoiler:the ship ejecting all of the passengers after the ship reboots, thinking they've arrived and initiating the docking procedures. While it would've made for an incredibly DownerEnding, this would also justify Aurora deciding to take Jim back, since if he hadn't woken her up then she would have died with all of the other passengers]].

** Once Jim's decision to [[spoiler:wake Aurora]] comes to light, the film has several interesting directions it can go in but [[spoiler:ultimately reduces this action to a ''very'' dark ThirdActMisunderstanding when Aurora chooses to take him back.]] Some reviews pointed out that the story would have worked very well as a thriller or a horror movie with [[spoiler:Jim as a villain driven mad by isolation, snapping after the only other person on board shuns him]]. Alternately, some felt that a better direction for Jim would be to [[spoiler:actually die fixing the ship, thus allowing Aurora to forgive him and causing Jim to be effectively punished for what he did, so she would not pursue a relationship with him]].

* OlderThanTheyThink: Who'd have thought the plot of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Just the Two of Us" (guy arranges it so that the girl he likes will be trapped with him in a world where they're the only two people around, only for her to eventually snap and turn on him) would get made into a feature film years later?

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
** Jim is nominally the hero of our story, but [[spoiler:due to his deliberately waking Aurora for purely selfish reasons, one might have a hard time sympathizing with him.]]
** Aurora is intended to be a tragic figure, but [[spoiler:it's just as easy to see her as a spoiled little rich girl, making a mockery of the efforts of the real colonists as she essentially takes a 250-year luxury vacation secure in the idea that she's effectively risking nothing, knowing that her likely safely-invested wealth will be waiting for her back on Earth]].

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: As the other items on this page can testify, not a whole lot of people liked what Jim did, which pretty much poisoned their perception of the plot for the rest of the film. Various critics went as far as to spoil the plot in their reviews and asked people to not go see the film... [[BoxOfficeBomb and many people listened]].