Sci-fi teen thriller 'Voyagers' is lost in space
Ever wonder what would happen if a two dozen emotionally stunted teenagers were stuffed inside a spaceship and dispatched on an 86-year journey to save mankind? Well, wait no more. The future of 2063 is here and it’s “Voyagers,” a sort of space-age “Lord of the Flies” in which those beautiful youngsters get ugly after discovering the blue water they’re drinking is the lone barrier between civility and chaos. Now imagine that scenario entrusted to alluring actors the likes of Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp and Fionn Whitehead, all part of a “Twilight-esque” love triangle promising a violent mix of sex and blood.
Who will live and who will die? Considering the shallowness of characters sprung from the mind of writer-director Neil Burger (“Limitless”) you’ll be fortunate to muster a shrug of the shoulders. But watching it unfold under the seductive spell set by cinematographer Enrique Chediak (“127 Hours”) in capturing Scott Chambliss’ (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) otherworldly production designs you’re at a loss to resist. Just don’t expect it to rattle in your consciousness for long, if at all.
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Yet, I was intrigued from the start by the moral complexities of breeding humans (think Gerbils and Tuskegee) to essentially be slaves tasked with saving Earthlings by sacrificing themselves as well as their kids and grandchildren. This three-generation hat trick is out of necessity due to the length of the nearly nine-decade mission to settle Earth’s twin in a galaxy far, far away. Assuming the voyagers don’t kill each other first. And here’s where Burger makes his most grievous error by opting to invest far more in the conventional social commentaries on life in the time of COVID than on the far more intriguing aspect of human nature and how it always seems to gravitate toward self-destruction.
There’s some of that, but not nearly enough to fulfill the initial promise of a film appearing to have more on its mind than jealousy and hormones, always a lethal mix. As is, “Voyagers” is just another empty treatise on unbending order breeding deadly disorder. You see every move coming as if Burger is playing checkers and we’re Bobby Fisher. It doesn’t help that his characters are rather doltish, at least for supreme specimens carefully bred inside an MIT biology lab. They’re smart, but do idiotic things for no other reason than that’s what Burger’s incomplete script tells them to do.
It begins shortly after the death of their master, err father figure. He’s played by Colin Farrell, eyes welling with love and devotion for the young charges he’s literally raised from infancy. But father of the year he’s not because good dads don’t partake in wielding control over other humans. His one noble gesture is to tag along with “his children” on their lifelong journey to another planet, one not subjected to money-grubbing boomers reducing it to a blazing, uninhabitable blast furnace.
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It's early in the mission (10 years) when Farrell’s Richard allegedly falls victim to a mysterious, invisible alien. But did he? Or was he murdered by a "son" for getting a little too handsy with one of his “daughters,” the lovely Sela, played by Johnny Depp’s handsome daughter, Lily-Rose. This hands-on mentoring is bad because their spaceship has a steadfast hands-off rule. Well, it does until buddies Chris (Sheridan) and Zac (Whitehead) stop drinking the impulse-retarding blue water and start getting itchy in the groin, especially for Sela, the crew’s chief medical officer who seems to know precious little about human reproduction.
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As expected, Chris, the good guy, and Zac, the slightly evil one, eventually part ways. That’s when the hammers, scalpels and automatic weapons come out of the supply bay and into the hands of horny teens looking to find companionship and sexual relief. Boy, does it get hideous. Which is interesting since everyone aboard is gorgeous (in a Hollywood casting sort of way). Soon the kiddos divide up into Team Chris and Team Zac, just like “Twilight” only dumber. You can guess the rest, as it plays out with computer-programmed efficiency.
Despite all that rampant laziness in Burger’s writing, I remained intrigued right through his film’s clumsy epilogue thinly veiled as a happy ending. That’s assuming human slavery can have a cheery adieu amid this dystopian mess. And what held my gaze were the fabulous production values (Yes, they’re really that good.) and the pretty, toothy smiles of the three leads. Yum! They look good enough to be eaten by a space monster. Much the better that task belong to phantom beast. Then he can suffer all the indigestion. Me, I ate it up and immediately spit it out, forever purged from my system, like a bad case of food poisoning.
Movie review
VOYAGERS
(PG-13.) Cast includes Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Colin Farrell and Fionn Whitehead. In theaters April 9. Grade: C
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