Voyagers

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Voyagers follows a crew of bio-engineered teenage astronauts who confront the nature of their existence and the rules that govern their small society in what is a very thinly veiled adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies. I was really pulled in by the opening act of this film, it really set up an interesting environment and scenario that our protagonists found themselves within. The significance of these individuals being crafted for an otherworldly space mission in an effort to save humanity and repopulate a new world was very high stakes. I think there was a unique depiction of choice (at least in the first act), wherein the crew was compelled to a certain motive because they were bred for it; then this drive was furthered by the drugged liquids they were ingesting. Watching the characters struggle with these factors and subsequently divert from the mission parameters, becoming more wild or free-spirited was a fairly compelling inciting incident to get thing underway. Also watching this young crew gravitate around the older mentor figure, Richard, makes for quite an important relationship; seeing the way in which this respected leader is viewed twist and warp are some of the more interesting character moments. The cinematography for Voyagers is one of its biggest triumphs, combining fast-paced tracking shots with intimate angles to make full use of the cramped space shuttle environment. The score for the film was this eerie, tense thing; I often found myself enamoured by a moment due to the soft nature of the music yet this could be flipped at a moments notice to heighten the tension of the piece.

 

Tye Sheridan, is a really solid protagonist throughout the feature and fits well into the leadership role; I liked seeing Sheridan balance out the portrayal of being free with a level-headed rationale towards the ensuing obstacles he faces. Colin Farrell, who played Richard, has a lot of charm as the gentle mentor and father figure to this space-faring crew; seeing the subtle longing and pain Farrell brings towards his role's old Earth memories makes him a memorable point of Voyagers.

 

However, the best performance came from Lily-Rose Depp, who played Sela. This is a role who is always the steady and well-meaning voice of reason throughout the feature. I think Depp had a huge job in portraying the role because she was responsible for portraying the ideal by which the crew would come to live by. I really enjoyed watching her performance as she subtly shifted from a more calm and calculating role while on the serum, to an individual with a tremendous amount of compassion and an ironclad will. Depp's ability to hook the viewer in from the start by showing a connection to Earth and this longing for an experience she has never actually personally had is wonderful. You watch Sela as she grows afraid at becoming the victim by the hands of her fellow crew, then this is moulded into a fiery resistance. This is the performance that delivers the conscience of the film and it is remarkably well-performed.

Voyagers is an interesting beast because it starts out really fresh and unique, providing a very interesting scenario for the audience to be drawn in by. However, the fact that this becomes a very pale imitation of Lord of the Flies is where this film takes a sharp plunge in quality. When these characters start getting wilder and out of control, doing irrational things, these moments are often where the plot gets quite over the top. The film likes to deal in extremes to really push home its message but the result is the film loses the ability to remain grounded. Suddenly we have some very stilted dialogue driving conflicts that spark quite abruptly, tense scenes riddled with plot holes or ominous attempts at heavy-handed theme work. Seeing the antagonist of the film ahve his key criminal act exposed halfway through the feature with no consequences is a tough sell, to then justify the crew really redeeming themselves after this moment even more so. The film pushes an optimistic message at the end, wanting us to believe in the good of humanity but it is so quick to show violence or sex for shocking impact rather than to serve the narrative. It's a muddied script that has no business describing itself as an original screen play considering how deeply it plagiarises from the classic text it's clearly adapted from. The editing in the film also had some slow-paced cuts, the wild transitions comprised of Earth shots also served to really push the viewer out of the moment a number of times over.

Fionn Whitehead, who played Zac, starts the role fairly well but leans into the melodramatic as the narrative progresses; Whitehead often feels out of sorts as the alpha-male aggressive type. Chante Adams, who played Phoebe, really adheres to the stereotype of her role more than trying to craft a character; her wheezing nerd just felt like a push to create an outcast type rather than a persona. Quintessa Swindell and Isaac Hempstead Wright, who played Julie and Edward respectively, are essentially treated as miscellaneous cew characters; Hampstead Wright has an arc with the alien entity that goes nowhere while Swindell is awkwardly shunted into sex-obsessed female character. Archie Madekwe, who played Kai, is pretty generic as the main muscle/henchman to Whitehead's antagonist; Madekwe has really wooden approach to line delivery and seems to be awkwardly working his way through the script.

A unique concept with a brilliant aesthetic that delivers a rather dull and over-exaggerated take on Lord of the Flies. I would give Voyagers a 6/10.