5th Passenger

A few minutes in, I was wondering why I was even watching, and I came here to read the reviews. I agreed with the people who wanted to give it negative stars. But for some reason, I didn't stop watching. The first 10 minutes or so are bad. Really, really bad. The acting was bad, the writing was worse, science was poor, and the political commentary on current events served no cinematic purpose. I had no complaints about the spaceship CGI.

After the first 10 minutes, it started picking up. The next ~50 minutes was decent. Nothing special, but not terrible.

The last 20 minutes or so were poor. Not bad, but below average. This is where the CGI took a bad turn, and the it looks like someone finished writing the script by recycling scenes and cliches from other movies. Even the trick ending was recycled, and if you didn't see it coming, I hope it is because you tuned out during the crappy start, and not because you missed the foreshadowing they applied with a sledgehammer. I guess you could argue that there was a second trick, but to me it looked like that got tacked on to make the ending artificially ambiguous. I think the movie would have been better served if they had committed to one "true" version and stuck with it.

Overall, I give it 4 out of ten. On my scale, movies between roughly 3 and 7 are watchable once. I've seen, and enjoyed, worse movies, but there are plenty of better options out there.

I don't know why there were good reviews/ratings for this movie. A total waste of time. Sorry to be harsh, but it is what it is. Bad sfx, cgi, storyline and poor acting. Do yourself a favor and pass on this one.

I had the opportunity to see this film on the big screen. I think what we have to remember is that the effects are astonishing. The viewer will question if they are watching the set or a green screen shot, its that clean. The story is a culmination and mix of ideas cleverly weaved together with an ending that will not leave you disappointed. Some highlights were seeing Doug Jones not in makeup or costume, and Tim Russ as a bad guy to root for. I think the negative reviewers need to consider the budget and quality you are getting. You don't buy a Honda and expect it to drive like a Ferrari. Just like I wouldn't expect this movie to have the same draw as a Star Wars. Knowing this I really enjoyed it for the entertainment value and underlying relevant hints at current events. Well done.

I love sci fi, especially "real ones" that are on space ships.

So I had to see this. There are a lot of known faces and decent actors in this movie, and a few really bad ones. Generic yelling black guy # 1 was very bad but most did a fine job.

The story wasn't bad but the script could have used some work. Okay it could have used a lot of work. Movie fights take a lot of work to be good, this only had one and they didn't put in a lot of work but it didn't ruin it.

What ruined it was certain characters who took decisions based on what mood the writers were in that day. We've all seen horror movies where they split up for no apparent reason, keep walking backwards or if they trip, they keep crawling until the bad guy gets them. This movie didn't have that but it did have some decisions based on the roll of dice it seemed. I really don't like that, especially in a space ship where you HAVE to assume every single person on that ship, with a vital role for the mission to be a success, has a certain amount of education, a certain amount of traning and certainly an IQ of above average. Script writers tend to forget that. In the real world, in a crisis, 80% of people don't actually panic and lose their head but for some reason well trained people on a space ship always seem to stick their own heads up their asses when stuff goes down. This movie could have been REALLY good with not too many changes.

If you watch this, it's almost certainly because you saw a Star Trek actor is in it. In fact, there are several of them, including Armin Shimerman and Tim Russ. Marina Sirtis appears in a small role. Honestly, I probably would have removed most of her scenes during editing. Until her last scene, they don't do anything but interrupt the plot. Shimerman and Russ have beefier roles, and they're both pretty good.

Some of the actors playing minor roles seem like they were handed a script five minutes before shooting began and got no direction. The script never really has anyone do or say anything intelligent, though there's some reasonably interesting worldbuilding early on. It doesn't go anywhere or have any meaningful effect on the plot, but it's there if you go digging for it.

I think they probably should have skipped the special effects if they didn't have enough money to do them right. I've seen horror movies that were shot on a cell phone and acted by people who were recruited from social media. They knew their limitations and turned out to be pretty watchable. Shooting for the stars is a dumb plan if you can't afford to make it there.

If this had been edited down to the length of a short film and uploaded to YouTube, the average rating would probably be almost twice as high, and there'd probably be some dedicated fans willing to help fund the director's next movie on kickstarter.