Passengers And Character Motivation
Note: If you haven’t watched the movie, Passengers, please don’t read this post. It WILL contain spoilers!
On Sunday, the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I finally watched Passengers, the space travel movie with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. It’s a beautiful movie. There are some gorgeous views of space. And I enjoyed the premise – A passenger on a 120-year-long voyage to a distant planet wakes up from his hibernation pod 90 years too soon. What does he do? The action was solid, the pacing was great, and there were explosions (which I always enjoy).
Chris Pratt’s character, Jim, does some heroic things. He also does some romantic things. He’s NO romance hero, however, and that is the one thing that bothers me about this movie.
Why isn’t he a romance hero?
Jim wakes his future love interest simply because he’s lonely.
He doesn’t know Jennifer Lawrence’s character Aurora. At all. He doesn’t know why she is undertaking the voyage or what her goals are. He doesn’t know if she sexually likes men. She has no skills that might help him return to his hibernation pod or, heck, survive at all in space.
There are over five thousand passengers on board. I’m certain there are engineers on the passenger list. He didn’t wake any of those folks. He didn’t even look over the manifest. For all he knows, one of the passengers on board helped design the hibernation pods. That passenger could have been super hot also. Women CAN be attractive AND intelligent. <--extreme sarcasm Jim simply sees Aurora, thinks she’s pretty, listens to her interview, and decides to wake her up, dooming her to a life spent with him alone. Yep, he forces that harsh future on a complete stranger merely because she’s good looking, not caring about her feelings or desires. Stronger motivation would have made this action much more romance hero worthy. How to do that? Make the heroine more than arm candy. Have Aurora work for the space travel company. Jim doesn’t know she is merely an accountant when he wakes her but she DID overhear some things that will eventually help both of them. Or Make her skilled with technology. Want that fancy coffee? She can hack the system and get it for him. Or Have her be okay with solitude. She has lived for years in isolation. Unbeknownst to Jim, that was because she was infamous on Earth, hounded by the media, and she hopes to move to the new planet and be able to mix with people again, but he thinks she can be happy on her own (the movie shows us the opposite – Aurora was extremely social before her trip). Or Give her a connection to the problem. Her family owns the space travel company so she shares a bit of the blame for the malfunction. Or Give Jim any one of gazillion other motivations for his action that could explain why he targeted her to wake up. But the writers didn’t do this. Aurora being pretty was enough for them. It wouldn’t have been enough for a romance reader or writer. We expect more.
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Dark Flight
His mission. His challenge. His forever.
Orol, the Refuge’s second-in-command, has been given what he believes is a simple mission—escort two human females to the settlement. The winged warrior arrives at the meeting site to find one of the females missing and the other aiming a gun at his head. To rescue the first, he must capture the second. Once he has Rhea in his talons, however, he realizes he never wants to let her go.
Her enemy. Her captor. Her everything.
Rhea doesn’t trust anyone. She certainly doesn’t follow commands issued by a gorgeous flying male with glittering eyes, a beautiful face, and a seductive touch. Orol is dominant, edged with darkness, and determined to find her sister. Rhea will do anything to prevent that, even if it means playing sensual games of submission with her powerful enemy, seducing him into forgetting everything except her.
Dark Flight is a STAND-ALONE SciFi Romance set in a gritty, dark world.
Buy Now:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Flight-Refuge-Book-2-ebook/dp/B07124941B/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Flight-Refuge-Book-2-ebook/dp/B07124941B/
Apple/iBooks/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dark-flight/id1242494643
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Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dark-flight-3
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/727350
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Favorite Movie Mom – The Blind Side
The Blind Side is one of my favorite movies of all time, which surprises many people because I have absolutely NO interest in football (grins). I did, however, grow up very, VERY poor (we didn’t eat every day and we had no indoor plumbing) right here in North America and I felt the same despair, the same hopelessness Michael Oher did.
I was fortunate to have a great mom who hooked me up with mentors. These wonderful people helped me escape the vicious circle of poverty, giving me opportunities and teaching me skills that middle class and wealthy folks take for granted (this is one of the reasons I vigorously support libraries – a librarian was one of these generous people).
Many of my buddies didn’t have this same opportunity. They never broke out of poverty. They have now given up on their so-called wild fantasies of owning a home or of ever retiring. They no longer dream. They no longer hope.
So I know how very lucky Michael Oher was to meet Leigh Anne Tuohy (played brilliantly by Sandra Bullock ). I love that Leigh Anne mothers everyone. She has her own causes, her own projects, her own career, but it is clear that she puts her family (whether biological or not) emotionally first.
She’s a modern warrior, venturing into scary parts of town, dealing with scary characters to protect her newly obtained son, to ease his stress. She’s wealthy. It would have be easier for her to simply replace all of Michael’s things, rather than risk her safety to try to retrieve them, but she does this to make him happy.
I love that she’s respectful of Michael’s biological mom, seeking her out even though there was no legal need to. She doesn’t judge. She knows no one is perfect and she also realizes how tough being a mother is. ALL mothers make mistakes. Leigh Anne made mistakes with Michael. I thought her acceptance of Michael’s mother was absolutely awesome.
Who is your favorite movie mom?
Nathan Lawford, Blaine Technologies’ chief financial officer, is known as the Iceman. He conducts his personal and business affairs without emotion, never allowing himself to become involved with anyone. When Nate sees something or someone he wants, he negotiates, paying a simple, set monetary price.
Now he wants Camille, the company’s green-haired intern.
Camille Joplin Trent never expected to be paid to pleasure the man of her dreams. She can’t quite figure out why this is a bad thing. Nate is intelligent, handsome, sophisticated, everything she’s ever wanted in a lover and never thought she could have. Their contract is for a month, thirty lust-filled days of making every sexual fantasy they’ve ever had come true. At the end of this month, the rules state their relationship will end.
Of course, Camille has never been good at following rules.
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