Review: Voyagers (2021), It’s Lord of the Flies In Space

I wish I could outdo the title of this review, but it really does summarize everything you need to know about Neil Burger’s Voyagers (2021). It takes a story that was already told by William Golding more than half a century ago and puts it…in space. Naturally, there are things to be appreciated about the film beyond its derivative plot. There are a few entertaining moments, I guess. The spaceship looks like what you might expect a spaceship to look like in the year 2063. The special effects aren’t bad enough to draw viewers out of the film. And, perhaps most importantly, it gives Lily-Rose Depp something else to add to her CV, besides being Johnny Depp’s daughter of course.

If I sound overly cynical about the film, I sincerely apologize. Perhaps what irks me the most about Voyagers is that it’s such a huge disappointment and an act of unnecessary misdirection. You think you’re getting a tense, story-driven, lost-in-space sci-fi thriller starring Colin Farrell. Instead, you get a shallow teen drama that steals its most “profound” ideas from a book on every school’s required reading list. 

To its credit, Voyagers actually starts out with an interesting premise, even if it bungles the execution. Scientists discover a new planet that, thanks to climate change, stands as humanity’s best chance of survival. The only problem is that getting there will take 86 years. This means that multiple generations of humans will need to live and die on the spaceship to start a new colony and save humanity. The mysterious creators of the mission decide to use IVF rather than traditional procreation, as sex might make everything too complicated and unpredictable. So, 30 test-tube babies are created and launched into space with a single adult supervisor, Richard (Colin Farrell), who will help teach them what to do and try to keep things in order.

Fast-forward to a crew full of young adults who all seem to respect Richard and do as they’re told. All goes according to plan until one of the youngsters realizes that they’re being drugged to be dull, complacent, and not “feel” things. You know, those teenager-y feelings that teenagers get; none of these people got to experience them, or anything to do with Earth or its pleasures. So, two of the crew members decide to stop drinking the special, nerve-deadening blue juice. Now they can run around and wrestle and feel up their fellow young adults in peace. 

For reasons that I won’t get into here, Richard gets blasted out of the picture, leaving the crew to fend for themselves. Enter Lord of the Flies. Some of the crew try to maintain order, while others simply want to enjoy their newfound freedom and enhanced senses. Even if you’ve never read the obvious source material, you can guess early on that everything will devolve into chaos and barbarism.

There were so many opportunities to go in more interesting directions with Voyagers. Science fiction is always a philosophical treasure trove, but when you have talentless movie execs dictating the direction, you end up with a less-than-mediocre teen drama. Even if you can forgive Voyagers for stealing its story from William Golding and failing to explore anything beyond superficial themes of “wow, sometimes humans are pretty bad” (I can’t), it’s difficult to forgive it for being so unbelievably forgettable. I imagine myself looking back in a year’s time and thinking, didn’t I watch some space movie with Colin Farrell? Or did I dream that? I’ll try to come back in a year’s time and let you know how that inner dialogue concludes.

Speaking of Colin Farrell, there is nothing to say. He serves a very functional role in Voyagers, and when there’s no longer a need for him, he’s discarded. I’m not one to bemoan films for failing to be “star vehicles,” but when you’re suddenly left with a cast full of mopey, unconvincing 20-somethings, you long for the big-ticket actor to make a comeback. 

There’s really nothing positive that can be said about Voyagers. If you break it down into its most basic parts, it has the foundations of a genuinely good film, yet it still manages to miss the mark by a mile. In its nearly two-hour runtime, it can’t even find a few moments to reflect on what makes Lord of the Flies an interesting study of the human condition. Instead, it just takes bits and pieces from the story and yells “Shut up, nerd!” as it shoves the book into a space locker. 

Voyagers (2021) Movie Rating: ★½ out of 5

If you’d like to watch Voyagers (2021), the film is currently available to stream, rent, or purchase via Amazon. For more film reviews like this one, be sure to check out the Philosophy in Film homepage!