Review: Sci-fi tale 'Voyagers' crashes and burns
It wants to be "Lord of the Flies" in space, but Neil Burger's story isn't even "Maze Runner"-quality
The fate of the human race has been placed in the hands of a bunch of teenagers in "Voyagers," a buffoonish story about the nature of man with the behavioral insight of an issue of Highlights for Children.
Director Neil Burger ("Divergent") steers this ship like he's come up with something profound about society, conflict and man's instinct. Rather it's "Lord of the Flies" in space, minus the wisdom or understanding of William Golding's novel, replaced by silliness and a cast that is not up to the task of its storytelling.
It's 2063 and a new planet has been discovered that can inhabit human life. The only issue is that it's 86 years away by travel, so a plan is hatched to send a ship full of children to the new planet, who will grow up on board the spacecraft and whose grandchildren will eventually populate the new planet.
Everyone in the scientific community can agree this is a foolproof, air-tight plan with zero margin for error. Except problems arise (dang it!) when the ship's leader Richard (Colin Farrell) dies in an accident fixing a mechanical issue, leaving the ship to the kids. It turns out some of them have realized they've been drugged and fed chemicals in their Kool-Aid that suppresses human desires. Once they go off the sauce, they're liberated and all hell breaks loose on board the Humanitas.
The ship is divided into two factions, a good team led by Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Sela (Lily-Rose Depp), and a bad team led by Zac ("Dunkirk's" Fionn Whitehead, never close to convincing as a villain). Zac leads by fear, Christopher follows reason. Do you get it? It's a metaphor!
If the cast was all 10 years younger, "Voyagers" would be a farce, the second season of "Kid Nation" that we never got. Instead, "Voyagers" is drunk on its own Kool-Aid, too intoxicated to realize it's nothing new under the sun.
'Voyagers'
GRADE: D
Rated PG-13: for violence, some strong sexuality, bloody images, a sexual assault and brief strong language
Running time: 107 minutes
In theaters
agraham@detroitnews.com
@grahamorama