Sci-fi and romance on an intergalactic journey

IT’S cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere, he’s all alone, more or less.

With only a comedy robot for company, space passenger Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) will have to find a way to battle the intergalactic blues.

That this glossy Hollywood movie is so reminiscent of cult British sitcom Red Dwarf isn’t the only odd thing about it.

For one thing, it’s a standalone big-budget original – a rare and risky proposition in this age of reboots, remakes and never-ending franchises.

Even weirder is the fact that it’s both a sci-fi and a romance, two genres that are usually kept light years apart.

If this really is based on Red Dwarf it would be an episode where a buff Lister romances an A-list Kristine Kochanski.

Jim has been ejected from his hibernation pod 90 years before the space cruise ship Avalon is due to arrive at a distant colony.

With the crew and other passengers still asleep, he faces a lifetime of very repetitive banter with Michael Sheen’s android bartender.

Then a clever plot twist sees him joined by his ideal woman. Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) signed up for the trip to write the most exotic travel feature in the history of journalism. She ends up with a very different story. Sadly, she’ll be long dead before anyone gets to read it.

But it turns out she and Jim really fancy each other.

Another unusual thing about this release is the way the trailer doesn’t give away the entire plot.

I’m not going to spoil the fun here. But I will say the first half forces us to weigh up a very chewy moral dilemma and goes on to deliver some gentle comedy and a swooningly effective