NOT WORTH THE VOYAGE
Compared to classic deep-space expeditions, such as Alien or 2001: A Space Odyssey, Voyagers feels more like a Sunday drive, Its ambitions are modest. And the filmmakers stick to a well-travelled route.
That in itself is not a problem — as the solid 2019 genre offering, Life, with Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal, attests. But nothing of any substance can flourish in the sterile environment in which this zero gravity Lord Of The Flies is set.
Written and directed by Neil Burger (Divergent), Voyagers tells the story of a multigenerational expedition to the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
Having exhausted Earth’s resources, humankind is searching for a viable alternative.
When a potentially habitable planet is discovered more than 80 light years away, scientists genetically engineer a spaceship’s worth of astronauts to travel there.
Raised in a simulated environment, without natural light, open landscapes, or biological family, they will be less likely to struggle with the limited confines of their mission-for-life.
Or so the theory goes.
When it’s time for the specially bred voyagers to depart, Colin Farrell’s project chief, Richard Alling, who takes his pastoral care role very seriously, opts to join them.
The seemingly benign father figure’s favouritism of Sela (Lily-Rose Depp), the spaceship’s chief medical officer, is just one of the potentially interesting plot strands Burger fails to develop.
When Christopher (Tye Sheridan) discovers his daily vitamin shot also contains emotional and sensual inhibitors, he and his mate Zac (Fionn Whitehead) choose not to drink it.
Many of the other voyagers follow suit. Zac’s subsequent, sexually predatory behaviour towards Sela sees him bumped from the genre’s
regulation spacewalk – during which Alling is fatally wounded.
This feeds Zac’s festering anger and resentment.
Once best friends, he and Christopher become bitter enemies. And without Alling, the spaceship swiftly descends into anarchy.
Within this volatile environment, it’s unclear whether the strange noises the voyagers are hearing are due simply to the ship contracting or whether they represent something more sinister.
All of which sounds like a promising set up for a contemporary exploration of free will and the battle of good versus evil.
The film’s three emerging leads – Depp (Crisis), Sheridan (Ready Player One) and Whitehead (Dunkirk) — give it everything they’ve got. But there isn’t much to work with in the underdeveloped developed screenplay, and as a director, Burger fails to sustain the tension.
The white corridors of the spaceship should evoke claustrophobia. Instead, the overriding impression is one of repetition.
Now screening in cinemas