If you are looking for great popcorn, but an average movie, “Passengers,” is the way to go. The new film, directed by Morten Tyldum, features Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as Jim Preston and Aurora Lane, who woke up 90 years early on the Avalon, a commercial spacecraft traveling to the faraway planet of Homestead II. After Preston, a mechanical engineer awakens because of technical difficulites, he spends a year on the ship before purposely waking Lane, a journalist, out of loneliness. He acts as if it was an accident and they begin to fall in love with each other. At the same time, the Avalon begins to fall apart, and all hell breaks loose.  Though meant to have the audience feel sorry for Preston’s loneliness, it comes as more weird than sympathy. Before waking Lane, Preston studies her like a science experiment. He looked at videos of her speaking and learned everything about her. If it were supposed to be weird, this would make sense. However, the writer did not have this intention, and it comes off poorly.

Lawrence does not enter the movie until at least a quarter of the way through and when she does, the conflict does not start until halfway through the film. It seemed at times that it was impossible to tell what the plot is. Is it focused on their relationship? Is it focused on the ship falling apart? This confusion puts the movie quite off pace by rushing the whole ship plot at the end. The film fell apart as the ship fell apart.

Chris Pratt is tough to judge as an actor. After being in “Parks and Recreation” for seven years, it is hard to imagine him as anything else. That applies to this movie as well. Pratt was not nearly as convincing as Lawrence and I really couldn’t see him as this character. His casting seemed like it was just an excuse for the producers to make money with Pratt’s name instead of having someone who could fit the role. Lawrence, on the other hand, was much more convincing as Lane and did pretty well. In addition to Lawrence, the rest of the cast gave life to the movie that needed it. Michael Sheen also portrays Arthur, a robotic bartender also aboard the Avalon. The rest of the cast includes Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia in minor roles, with Fishburne playing the Deck Officer Gus Mancuso, who awakens due to the ship malfunctions and helps Preston and Lane try to fix them before it is too late. Garcia plays Captain Norris, the captain that leads the rest of the passengers off the Avalon when it arrives at Homestead II. With bad writing and subpar acting, “Passengers” might be enjoyable, but it will not be remembered.

See it in theaters now, or wait for the DVD and save $12.