The Movie Jennifer Lawrence Regrets Making Is Now A Hit On Netflix

In a lot of cases, it's easy to get excited for a movie purely based on who is involved. You get a couple of major stars, especially some who are hot off making some of their biggest films, and people gravitate towards them. Add in an intriguing premise and people are even more likely to run to theaters to check it out. That was the case in late 2016 when a sci-fi movie called Passengers hit theaters starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.

While a film like this being popular upon arrival isn't rare, an actor being disappointed in making the movie and being publicly open about that is far more rare. When it comes to Passengers, Jennifer Lawrence has been open about the fact that she ultimately regrets working on the project. That has made it so Passengers, despite making a solid amount of money at the worldwide box office, has been mostly forgotten over the past decade.

Reviews were poor, the overall story was filled with controversy, and the end result was a forgettable film. In some surprising news, Passengers is rising back to some prominence, as it has launched into the top five of Netflix's streaming charts early in June. Learning more about everything that made Passengers somewhat infamous adds to its overall mystique.

Passengers Had All The Makings Of A Hit

It seemed like a guarantee that Passengers would be a success on both financial and critical levels. It mostly worked on the former, grossing over $300 million, though with a budget of around $150 million, that ultimately doesn't result in a huge financial gain for the studio. That makes sense given the people involved. Jennifer Lawrence was probably the hottest actor in Hollywood at the time, with roles in blockbusters and critical darlings.

She was fresh off the entire Hunger Games franchise and had appeared in two X-Men movies as Mystique. On top of that, she was nominated for Academy Awards for Winter's Bone and American Hustle, while also winning the Best Actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook. Everything she touched seemed to turn to gold. Meanwhile, her co-star Chris Pratt was also a popular actor at the time, having just starred in Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy.

On top of those factors, Passengers also benefited from a great trailer. Lawrence and Pratt play characters who are traveling on an interstellar ship to a colony over 120 years, only to be awakened 90 years early from their suspended hibernation. People wondered why they were awake, if there was a way to fix it, and how they would manage to handle the fact that their lives were going to end before they got to their destination.

The Entire Premise Of Passengers Was Controversial

Unfortunately, the cool premise that the trailer showed was actually not what the movie was completely about. Chris Pratt's Jim Preston, a mechanical engineer, awakens 90 years early because his pod malfunctions. Not wanting to live out his days on his own, he actually awakens journalist Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) and plays it off as if it was all a mistake. That takes the sci-fi romance that was advertised down a way darker path than anyone expected.

Although Aurora and Jim grow close and do find romance, the truth eventually comes out, which is where further controversy comes into play. Aurora is rightfully angry with him and avoids Jim for a while, but when the ship is in danger, they have to work together to try and save themselves. They succeed in what they need to do and Jim reveals that he can fix her pod and put her back to sleep. Aurora decides to stay with him and live out their lives on the ship.

The problematic wish-fulfillment aspect of the main story hurt Passengers overall. The male character does something truly heinous and the female character chooses to stay with him despite this. Jim waking Aurora up is an intriguing twist on what audiences expected, yet the trouble comes with how Passengers didn't examine the implications of it all or hold Jim accountable for his actions.

The film also becomes a disaster movie in the third act, which means that we don't get much time to examine how Aurora feels about this betrayal. That forces her to be a poorly developed character, which helps drag the movie down. It's all a big part of why Passengers has a poor 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Users on Netflix likely saw the cast and premise and hopped to see it, yet didn't get what they were expecting.

Jennifer Lawrence Has Expressed Regret Over Making Passengers

The controversy that surrounded Passengers was heavy. Producer Neal Moritz discussed how some saw the movie as justifying date rape, which was picked up by a lot of media members and kind of became the narrative surrounding the film. Jennifer Lawrence has talked about the film several times in the years since, even noting that she was disappointed in herself for not fully spotting the sexist issues at the heart of the film.

She admitted that she's not embarrassed by the movie or her work in it. She viewed it as a complicated love story and doesn't think it was a failure, but has openly stated that she wishes she had looked deeper into parts of it before officially signing on. Lawrence also revealed that her friend and major music star Adele actually warned her against the role. Adele suggested that space movies were the new vampire movies, which meant there were too many out there and the market became oversaturated.

While that wasn't totally true, Lawrence agreed that she should've listened to Adele. Passengers was also the first film in a string of disappointments, as Lawrence's next releases, mother!, Red Sparrow, and Dark Phoenix were all relative flops. It felt like a far cry from how hot she started her career and thankfully, Lawrence is back to making great projects like Causeway, No Hard Feelings, and Die My Love, reminding everyone of her greatness.

The controversy around Passengers hasn't died down over the years and will likely become notable again now that it's a streaming hit on Netflix.