Voyagers (2021) Poster

(2021)

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5/10
Lord of The Flies in space, done in a boring way.
Sleepin_Dragon27 November 2022
A group of youngsters are sent into deep space, in order to search for a new home, and build a better world, things however don't go according to plan.

The combination of Colin Farrell, sci fi story, and evident budget gave me real hopes that this was going to be a cracking film....

...Sadly it wasn't, it was quite unimaginative, and despite looking great, it was actually hard to stay concentrated on it, because it was sadly, just dull.

A very interesting first 10 minutes or so, then it descends into sci fi opera, a Lord of The Flies story which sadly lacked any real sense of appeal.

Farrell was good, but should have had a much bigger part, the interest went along with his character.

Hoped for a lot, was ultimately disappointed, 5/10.
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6/10
Average
ThomDerd29 May 2021
Plot: Lord of the flies but now in space.

Some good points here: Set design is very good. Music is ok and helps the pace of the film.

Some bad points: The sub-story has holes bigger than black holes in space. And the acting is sometimes plain like watching teenage theater.

If you don't know lord of the flies, than you will probably find this interesting.

I didn't mind the watch but that's not more than a 6/10.
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4/10
Frustrating nonsensical plot drags down everything
kaideneve5 May 2021
This movie is actually quite intriguing for the first 40 minutes or so. The set design is excellent, and along with cold emotionless expressions on the actors and shots of the mundane lives of the would-be colonists, helps to establish a plausible set-up with tons of potential. They know they're the first generation of a ship on a multi-generational voyage to colonize another planet, and may also be humanity's last hope of survival. Their grim personas express their awareness of this fact and that the mission is paramount. There's even a mysterious hint at an unexpected presence on the ship to add to the suspense.

Don't bother watching the second half though. As a lot of other reviews have mentioned, it tries to adapt a plot similar to Lord of the Flies, however the big difference here is that these teenagers are supposed to have been highly trained for this mission their entire lives, and are literally the future of humanity. They're not a ragtag group of students on a deserted island struggling for survival.

I don't think I need to use any spoilers for you to imagine how trying to shoehorn the Lord of the Flies plot into this situation leads to a trainwreck of a last half. The script takes a sharp turn into utter nonsense with ridiculous dialogue and characters actions. It is truly such a pity and a waste of a great set-up.

I will say that I was impressed with the performance of Tye Sheridan in particular, and Colin Farrell can rarely do wrong as well. The other main actors were decent at best, or just too weighed down by atrocious dialogue to make anything of their performances.

I'd recommend watching the first 40min or so (8/10) and then just walking away and imagining your own conclusion. Anything would be better than what transpired in the last half of Voyagers.
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3/10
It went from good to laughable in a split second...
paul_haakonsen31 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I wasn't sure what to expect from writer and director Neil Burger with this 2021 sci-fi thriller, but I must admit that the synopsis for the movie sounded fairly interesting. And so without having even seen a trailer or even heard about the movie prior to watching it, I sat down to watch "Voyagers".

And while "Voyagers" did actually start out pretty interesting, and had me entertained, the movie just fell into pieces upon the act where the character Richard died. After that, the movie just became laughable and downright annoying to watch.

After the death of Richard, the movie became a pointless theater of fighting, bickering, deception and debauchery, and throw in a hefty bit of bland characters that constantly look like they are seriously constipated. Essentially the movie slipped from being an interesting and atmospheric sci-fi thriller to becoming a mindless clone of "Lord of the Flies", but set in space.

What really ticked me off here was the ignorance and the behavior of the adolescent characters in the movie. Seriously, they're stuck aboard a space vessel with nowhere to go, and they succumb to such behavior. No, it just seemed way to incomprehensible and ludicrous.

Visually then "Voyagers" was actually quite good, and there was a good atmospheric sense of claustrophobia and of being crammed inside a space vessel. Just a shame that the storyline had to become such dripple.

Essentially watch the movie up to the point where Richard dies, then turn off the movie. At least that way you will walk away with a wholehearted experience of the movie and have good memories of the story. Just don't bother with the second half of the movie, because it was just a big heap of... Well, you know what I mean.

"Voyagers" had potential to be such a great movie and a rather interesting one as well. But a horrible writing of script changed that experience into a joke.

I am rating "Voyagers" a generous three out of ten stars, and that is mostly based on Colin Farrell's acting, the atmosphere of the first part of the movie and the visuals.
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7/10
This is what happens when we live without rules and rights. .
xxxxxdarkmoon29 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Firstly, to the descriptions of the "side-story" of Voyagers: Although these 30 people on the generation spaceship are already between 20 and 25 years old, they behave extremely naively. The bad ones among them have no morals. The reason for this naivety is, that these 30 people grew up in isolation from the rest of the world before starting their 80-year journey as teenagers. Only 5 among those 30 people have morality. The rest behave like cavemen. There's no other way to put it. Especially the psychopathic leader of the evil ones:

He is annoying and no fun to watch. His character is a mix of stupidity, being self-centred, narcissistic, manipulative, violent and without compassion or conscience. A typical psychopath - in paradise since it's not hard for him to get the majority of these naive people on his side. Even after it was revealed that he murdered Chief Colin Farrell. Their naivety is painful to watch!

Colin Farell was the only adult on the trip when they started, and after 10 years, this psychopath murdered him - for ridiculous reasons.

The mission became absurd after that. And they killed 2 more, also for ridiculous reasons.

When these people and their grandchildren one day arrive on the new planet and have to build a new world for the future of our species....humanity would fall back into slavery and dictatorship - there is no doubt about it.

The film "Voyagers" shows this very clearly. Therefore the filmmaker did well.

V v v Now to the main story, of what the movie is actually about:

Yes, it feels uncomfortable when we watch that group of people ignoring human rights. But that's how we should feel when we see injustice. Isn't it? That is the point and the message of the film.

Look: it took thousands of years of human history to learn from our mistakes and build a civilisation. Slowly, through wars, slavery, dictatorship and other terrible things, we learned to develop rules. And if an isolated group of people ignores these rules and rights, bad things will happen. Always. Like in that spaceship. It is even a scientifically proven fact:

There is another film with the same problem, like "The Experiment", which is based on a real event: It was a real psychological study at Stanford University in 1971. The paid participants became abusive and immoral within a few days, exposing others to punishment. They began to wage war and psychological terror inside the bunker>>> after being allowed to make their own rules. Before the experiment began, these 26 participants agreed to give up rules and basic human rights, and they signed for it.

The experiment had to be stopped prematurely to prevent further escalation of violence and abuse of power.
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2/10
Highly intelligent idiots
cahamiltonky16 October 2021
Painfully boring and beyond stupid. Highly educated and intelligent people who easily sink into the depths of a Twilight Zone episode I saw as a child. Easily manipulated by a single person, quick to kill... oh, good grief, this was just a typical boring study of mob mentality at it's worse that we've seen in many other movies. We humans do some stupid things sometimes and follow the wrong leaders sometimes but these movies make the human race seem like mindless sheep. Enough already.
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7/10
Really don't get the hate
monaharfmann2 June 2021
Honestly I don't understand all the negative reviews. Personally I liked almost everything about this movie: the idea, the music, the cinematography and most of the actors. They also put a lot of thought into small details which I really appreciated. Maybe it's not Oscar-worthy or something like that but it never tried to be. It's an enjoyable Sci-Fi movie that makes you think about the nature of mankind, our future, climate change, even democracy. Definitely worth 7/10!
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2/10
Plot collapses
staffordgorsalitz24 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
What appears to be a " Lord of the Flies" in space collapses by the weight of its illogical premises. We are led to believe that these genetically engineered offspring are bred to be bright enough to survive through three generations in an 86 year mission. At first you can suspend your belief when they function as highly intelligent and proficient specialists in space. The fallacy arrives when the majority of these young adults throw science to the wind and accept one crew mates word that an " alien" has killed their chief and is inside another crew member . This despite seeing one of their own murder the chief in video. From that point on it deflates like a leaky inner tube.

Surprised that Colin Farrell and Ty Sheridan would attach themselves to such a project. But alas I guess even actors in the Covid era have to lower their standards for a pay check.
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A perfectly fine movie, examines "what is our true nature?"
TxMike17 August 2021
Many very shallow comments call this "Lord of the Flies in Space", or something akin to that. Doing so, or thinking so, misses the point completely. I'd say this movie has more in common with "Pleasantville" where the writer-director asked the question "Is it better to live in a totally safe, predictable world or in one where you have choices and can make mistakes?"

The hook here is 40+ years in the future and we are beginning to worry about long term viability of the Human species on Earth. So a voyage is planned to an inhabitable planet, even traveling at a very high speed will take 86 years to get there.

So the plan involves creating roughly 30 babies by conception and delivery in a lab, using genetics of intelligent and successful donors. The subjects are raised, educated, and trained in isolation so they have no attachment to the real world. During the 86-year trip they would reproduce and their grandchildren would become the settlers of the new planet.

While the ending has a satisfying statement the real story is during the trip itself, roughly ten years into it, when some then most of the voyagers begin to exercise free will, some don't care if the mission succeeds, "we will all die anyway." The question ultimately becomes "What is our true nature and can we learn to care about others and do things for the common good?"

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library, a fine movie and much better than its IMDb rating would suggest.
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7/10
Failed Lord of the Flies in space
siderite11 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The film had a lot of potential, but it lost it mainly for two reasons. First of all they wasted a lot of time with setting things up, then they moved too fast when it was time for a slower burn. So, pacing, basically. Second of all, it is another of those "set in space" stories that have little to do with space other than the flimsiest of setups.

The movie starts with a spaceship with a crew of genetically selected children, meant to dutifully run the ship and breed the next generations in order to reach a new planet 86 years later. Ignore all of that. Because the entire story takes place with the first generation realizing that they are kept in check with hormone suppression, stopping taking it, then going through a very short Lord of the Flies episode with some pretty heavy handed "spaceship Earth" analogies.

Truthfully, I liked how the "kids" (they are all older than 23) played their roles and there was quite a lot of tension in the film, the sensation of futility of common sense, the terror that we are all idiot monkeys inside and there is no solution. But then it all went by too fast with no other resolution than a vague message that we are capable of overcoming our fears and rule our worst inner impulses. Too bad, because I think this could have been a better movie is not for all the focus on LED lightning and pointless future weaponry and the pointless extra setup. Even Colin Farrell's character was a bit superfluous. And did they have to place this in space?
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2/10
Don't be fooled. This is no Sci-Fi
Sam_M_Antony20 June 2021
The entire movie can be watched as a speedrun. There isn't much of a story. Very predictable and poorly written. I felt as I wasted time watching this movie. I wouldn't watch this even if this is available in a streaming service like Netflix.
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8/10
A HIGHLY Intelligent & Thought Provoking 🌠 Movie, Stylistically & Visually FANTASTIC ; But One That's Somewhat, Er ..."DIVERGENT"... From Its MPAA Certified PG-13 Rating 🤷 .
A "Good, Old Fashioned" -{ BIG }- Screen Mini Review .

______________________________________________________

Christopher : " Maybe this is our true nature " .

Richard : " That's a profound thought " .

{ NON-spoiler : This is ( -Clearly- ) audible in the film's March-2021 trailer } .

______________________________________________________

I've -actually- come across -atleast- a 100 reviews on this forum slamming 'Voyagers' for being, in essence : " -{ Not Much More }- than an ( outer space ) rip-off of a certain acclaimed author's novel -turned film- { "Lord of the Flies" ( 1954 ) }. Here is my response to that accusation , in earnest. -All- Directors , & -All- Artists , frankly... are -{ Constantly }- being " inspired " by prior artistic works, & " borrow " from them FAR MORE OFTEN than we may 'readily' be prepared to admit. I would like to make it entirely clear that this most certainly -{ Not }- the same thing as 'ripping-off', 'plagiarizing', or 'stealing'. For the seemingly -endless- contrarians among you on this platform that have somewhat callously accused this undeniably -{ Enthralling }- Space 🌌 thriller's super-talented Director Neil Burger, { known best for the critically rejected yet -popularly- "Colossal" 'Divergent' ( 2014 ) }, of doing just that : Kindly note the 'following' . " I'd be 'willing-to-bet' that if the bespoke 'literary late great', Author & Nobel Laureate William Golding, were somehow able to publicly opine on the matter from the great-beyond ; he would be rather -{ unequivocal }- in lavishing praise on -{ this }- particular iteration.... { of that age-old " Darkness-Of-Man's-Heart ( etc. ) " theme } ....presented here as a grand scale "Cinematic Thought-Experiment" of sorts. The pointed, Unbridled critique of the frailty of human nature offered in the picture, along with its perfectly paced and -unabashed- study of how 'Serious-immorality' can rear its ugly head in literally -{ Any }- given social setting, is, in point of fact, completely & utterly " Fascinating " , at the very -least- . Even just as a pure work-of-Art, the film works BEAUTIFULLY 💙 , 'in it's own right'. Moreover, the ( somewhat ) "fresh-faced" ensemble of 'Up-and-comers', led by none other than veteran actor Colin Farrell, render their ( often ) "deliberately-Subdued" performances, for the most part, "To an absolute freakin' tee" .

Summary : Alas, I know in my heart of hearts that I -Must- take a -Whole- point off this ( 'ultimately' ) fiery & riveting movie's overall score, & here's why, in a nutshell : 'Voyagers' is truly -{ Not }- appropriate for young teenagers . . . -{ Inspite }- of the fact that it is rated PG-13 . This, the film's -OWN- homepage, in fact, mentions that it very nearly received an { 'R' }-Rating from the M. P. A. A. Additionally, I feel that this -should- really have been atleast a -{ Slightly }- longer picture . . . Exploring a few " Key " aspects of the story in greater depth. So, from me, all told, that's going to be a 'pandemic-Considerate', yet nonetheless -decidedly- Inspired, Even { " INVIGORATED " } . . . 7.50 Marks Out Of 10.00 🚀🔥🖖 .
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7/10
It deserves more than 5/10
theprogs18 May 2021
When I first saw the rating, I was going to skip this movie, but because I like the Space movies I gave it a shot. The movie has actually impressed me, especially in the first half, I'm not sure about the second half because it has some nonsense events, but I don't think that could push the rating beneath 6/10.

The idea, the story, the environment, the dialogue, the SFX and visualizations are good enough, that's why I'm giving it 7 out of 10.
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3/10
Surprisingly awful
Leofwine_draca13 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This international sci-fi production boasts Colin Farrell in the cast and involves a group of young trainees on a space ship heading for their first mission. About the halfway mark catastrophe occurs and the kids have to fend for themselves. An attempt at a futuristic LORD OF THE FLIES type story, this, but it turns out to be surprisingly awful; the direction is subdued and sleep-inducing throughout, the script awash with cliches, the cast sleepwalking through their roles. It's like THE HUNGER GAMES or DIVERGENT but without even the cursory action and melodrama that they offer.
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4/10
Lord of the Flies meets hormonal teens in space
srdikano14 October 2021
Shockingly enough, the premise isn't all that bad. It's just that the tropey story, amateur script and lackluster direction inevitably tank the whole thing. Skip this.
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7/10
Better than expected
thomasjbollinger2 June 2021
Read some reviews here during the movie - it was a mistake. I liked the movie for a couple of things, mostly I found the plot idea was interesting, the setting was good and the overall performance of all the actors was good. The movie also raises some interesting topics and thesis, like: What is it really to be male, if education and upbringing doesn't interfere? Are we by nature that violent an reckless or not - or only some? What percentage is genetic? I enjoyed the movie and in my opinionm it was a lot better than the score the movie gets here.
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3/10
Boring, predictable, and overall not worth your time
zkarabat9 March 2022
How this was released in theaters baffles me. Forced to watch it at my in-laws over the holidays and best I can say is that we didn't turn it off so no arguments over politics could occur.
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7/10
Sci fi premise that focuses on human wild nature but stylistic film.
cruise0110 April 2021
3.5 out of 5 stars.

Voyagers is a pretty fair science fiction film about a biologically created group of kids. Who are going on a voyage to a new planet to colonize and start over. But while on a space voyage. They discover there pleasure senses have been reduced from a drug they been taking. They decide to stop which there wild instincts kick in into madness. Which the group of teens will be divided from trying to have a civilized rule to a living life wild which can put the future of humanity at risk.

What worked? The concept and plot is promising. In a future. Earth is no longer livable. Researchers decides to genetically create humans so they wont be attached from leaving earth. They have been isolated from civilization. And Richard (Colin Farrell) who is a researcher and a mentor. Tags along with the space crew to make sure they are behaving. Until they start to lose control.

The set designs and visual effects are great. Kind of feels similiar to the movie Passengers.

The cast ensemble is good. Colin Farrell is good. Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp were great. Fionn Whitehead playing a rebellious teen who is trying to create fear within the group and trying to live there lives selfishly was good too.

What did not work? The film is a slow burn thriller. The second act is slow and boring in the middle. Could have been a faster direction. The film does pick up when tension rises with Tye Sheridan and Fionn Whitehead are divided and fighting each other.

Also the music score was a bit dull for a science fiction space thriller. Which kind of made the movie feel a little dull.

It does have an interesting premise and some thrills and a great cast. Which could have been better.
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1/10
Started out with a good premise, quickly turned in to lord of the flies
mason2526 October 2021
This was almost scene for scene the lord of the flies set against a new age/near future back drop, not one single twist or unexpected anything to happen or cause intrigue.
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7/10
Better than most reviews say
kgborrell-3414625 May 2021
It's like others said...Lord of the Flies in space. It's not terrible but not the best ever either. Good for a casual watch.
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3/10
I deserve a medal
ndlanding11 December 2021
I sure deserve a medal for getting to the end of this boring, predictible piece of rubbish. I don't think Golding would be too happy about the comparisons being made.
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9/10
It's more profund that it looks
adamkaminski-4139524 February 2024
Between the lines you can see that the director tries to show how a society without leadership, laws, order, and a legitimate force to insure peace, will colapse into destruction. People need to be reasonable, racional and control their impulses, instints, emotion and desires, otherwise they would live only for satisfying themselves and will forget about the future and the sake of all, ignoring a greater purpose.

The young actors could have performed better, but the idea behind the story will compensate it. Colin Farrell did well. There are a lot of flaws, but I think it's very difficult to do a movie like that in only 107 min.

PS: you will notice that Zac represents the lefties.
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7/10
mankind just can't help itself
ksf-24 March 2024
Scientists believe they have found another planet capable of sustaining human life. So they build a mission which will deliver future generations to it. During the journey, the young astronauts realize that if they stop eating a certain food, they feel more emotion. And energy. And sexual viability. And they get courage to break more rules.. like breaking into the supplies which were supposed to be held for the next generation of colonists. When more infractions and catastrophies occur, their chances of completing this mission seem to be decreasing. This has been called a cross between lord of the flies and earthsearch. Lots of irrational phsical violence, competition, fighting. Even after seeing what really happened in the video that started all this. It just feels like a runaway train, barreling toward a failed mission. Can anything stop this wave of violence? Written and directed by neil burger. I liked his other films divergent and illusionist better. But this one isn't bad!
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2/10
Bad Sci fi version of lord of the flies
alexuno_murray3 July 2021
Bunch of annoying teenagers screwing things up. Didn't bother watching it to the end, waist of time. Oh, and the little film music is annoying too.
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4/10
Well, pretty much a disaster
xNecRosex19 May 2021
Subpar flick lacking anything worth mentioning. The trailer was probably the best thing about this film and after watching the film you realise the trailer was waaaay better, the viiibes etc, rather cool.

Depp's daughter though, has a potential to be a good actress, just isn't quite there yet.
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