Sci-fi's onscreen surge

Passengers, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, has recently made waves on China's big screen. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"It looked quite different from anything I'd seen before. It was a different atmosphere for a movie," says Lawrence.

But Passengers is also an interesting case of the changing favor of Chinese moviegoers.

China has a short history of sci-fi movies. Most Chinese born in the 1970s and 1980s got their first knowledge about space and aliens from Hollywood imports.

"Now they are becoming pickier about storytelling," says Jiang Yong, a Beijing-based industry watcher.

On China's most popular reviewing site Douban.com, Passengers has obtained a mediocre score of 6.9 points out of 10. Critically acclaimed foreign imports usually surpass 7.

A number of reviews question the value in the film.

Pratt's protagonist－who is the first to wake up accidentally－wakes up a journalist (Lawrence), as he can't bear the loneliness and wants to have a companion. But his activity in a sense leads to ruining her life.