Rent Voyagers (2021)

Average SciFi - Voyagers review by GI

This is basically The Lord Of The Flies in space. The premise is good and the idea very apt in these days of worrying climate change but the film stays rather muted and errs on the side of caution. This its a shame because it would have benefitted by being a more adult orientated and gutsy narrative. Set in the late 21st century with the Earth steadily becoming more uninhabitable. To ensure the survival of humanity a space mission is planned to reach and colonise a distant planet. The journey will take 86 years and so mission specialist Richard (Colin Farrell) has the crew genetically engineered from birth. He will manage them on the flight which it's known will mean the grandchildren of the original crew will be the ones to colonise the new world. But when, as teenagers, they start to develop emotions including jealousy and anger the mission begins to go awry and different factions vie for control. The idea of emotionless future people (in this film they are given a drug to suppress them) has been done before and it creates a good contrast when they suddenly discover love, fear etc etc. But the film then slips into a good guys/bad guys mode without the excitement of the violence or passion that has been built up. This makes it all very tame and whilst it looks good, for the most part, it drifts along to the inevitable and predictable end. Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp are the good guys with Fionn Whitehead the one who lets his emotions get the better of him!. Watchable but nothing special.

Equal parts watchable and silly - Voyagers review by Alphaville

A film about ‘young adults’ that, at last, for the most part, isn’t just for teenagers. They’ve been bred to crew a spaceship to a planet that only their grandchildren will reach. It’s not 2001 A Space Odyssey, but the screenplay does ask some interesting questions… If you’re going to die en route anyway, why be good?

Unfortunately, as the trailer gives away, it develops into an adolescent Lord of the Flies. It all gets very silly, with some risible montages, reminiscent of an old Monty Python sketch, that are apparently meant to represent growing sexual awakening. It’s never less than watchable, but ultimately the whole is less than the sum of its parts and ends up as little more than another film with the logline: In space no-one can hear you scream.

Lord of the Flies with a shot of Alien - Voyagers review by DM

I'm a sucker for generation starship stories but/because they always go wrong. In this case it's because the mission designers didn't read Lord of the Flies. The analogy breaks down a little because the crew are young adults, not children, so it's a bit hard to believe that almost the whole crew turn into a bunch of psycho apes the minute they stop taking their medication; when I was in my 20s I could easily have found thirty friends who could get on in a confined space without killing each other.

But of course it's a metaphor for how fascism gets started (invent a lie to make people afraid, then demonize anyone who insists on facts and reason) and also a nod to Alien, since which movie every spaceship is crewed by a bunch of malcontents who are only stopped from tearing each other's throats out by the presence of one responsible adult.

Not great, then, but not dreadful. I just hope that if and when humans do leave the solar system they can figure out how to put together more reliable teams.