'Passengers' TV Spot: The Universe's Most Attractive Couple Goes To Space

There are several reasons I'm looking forward to Passengers, a film that I listed amongst my most anticipated movies of 2016 and broke into the top 10 on our most anticipated movies of the fall season list. The first reason is that Jon Spaihts' screenplay has been garnering acclaim since 2007, leading me to keep an eye on this film as it almost became a Keanu Reeves vehicle. The second reason is that the premise is so intriguing: a romance between a man and a woman prematurely awakened from their hibernation on a 90-year journey to a colony on a distant planet. And once the film was cast, there became a third reason: there are few modern screen couples that sound as instantly appealing as Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence.

The first TV spot for the film has arrived and it touches on everything that makes this movie look so darn nifty. Big spaceship sets! Expensive science fiction action! Smoldering shots of the two leads staring into each other's eyes!

This spot is actually a better piece of film advertising than the theatrical trailer, which is full of wondrous moments despite while not being especially well edited. These 30 seconds distill the movie down to its essence: a guy, a girl, a spaceship, a crisis, a love story. Of all of the major studio movies arriving in December, this one remains near the top of my must-see list.

Passengers is the latest film from director Morten Tyldum, whose Oscar-winning The Imitation Game didn't impress me nearly as much as his blackly comedic thriller Headhunters, the rare movie that actually deserves to be called "Coen-esque." But neither of those movies make him an obvious choice for a star-studded science fiction romance, which only intrigues me more. I have no idea what this movie is going to feel like, but I'm certainly intrigued to find out.Passengers is set to open on December 21, 2016. Here's the official synopsis:

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are two passengers onboard a spaceship transporting them to a new life on another planet. The trip takes a deadly turn when their hibernation pods mysteriously wake them 90 years before they reach their destination. As Jim and Aurora try to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction, they begin to fall for each other, unable to deny their intense attraction... only to be threatened by the imminent collapse of the ship and the discovery of the truth behind why they woke up.