Voyagers (2021)

Voyagers is a teen sci-fi movies written and directed by Neil Burger. It stars Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp and Fionn Whitehead and features a cast of young adults who have been burdened with the task of ensuring a life for humankind on another planet. All kinds of issues and dilemnas ensue, I encourage you to watch the film to find out what happens next!

I walked into the cinema with low expectations. I had no knowledge about the movie except what I had seen in those ads that had absolutely saturated my YouTube account.

It’s safe to say that this was a great choice on my behalf (in going in with low expectations) because I was pleasantly surprised by how the movie turned out.

It has been many years since the last great teen sci-fi/dystopian film has been released, with The Hunger Games turning ten next year and The Maze Runner released in 2014, and I wondered “will this movie fill that gaping hole?” In short, the answer is ehh… maybe.

I would say that the movie was equal parts predictable and subversive. The movie can be divided into two parts: the good and the bad.

The Good

Fionn Whitehead’s performance. While I’m no acting coach or casting director, I can definitely appreciate a good performance. In my personal opinion, he played his character really well. I liked his character in 2017’s Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk and Whitehead’s ‘Zac’ was a nifty departure from his character in Dunkirk. Maybe it was a testament to the writing or directing or filmography, but his Zac certainly made me seethe!

My favourite character, however, was Colin Farrell’s Richard. All I have to say about it is that I’m sorry he wasn’t in the film more.

Apart from the characters, there were parts of the plot and storyline that I did not see coming, without giving anything away, there were a few points where my heart rate went up and a couple of tiny little jump scares (nothing terror inducing, just a feeling of ‘what’s going to happen next?!’).

The Bad

It would definitely be harsh of me to say that this movie is bad so I have decided to rename this section as ‘The Alright-ish’

The Alright-ish

There were certainly aspects of this film that I didn’t enjoy as much such as the most of the characters. I feel that as an audience member, we are given little insight into the characters as a whole. I walked out of the cinema knowing barely any of the characters’ names and it would have nice to have seen a bit more of the (hardly) glorified extras that flooded the movie.

The first part of the movie is not visually or in any other way stimulating and I understand this was probably done in order to convey the ‘decreased pleasure’ that “the blue” gives the young adults so for this reason, it gets a rating of alright.

What’s more, as with any movie directed at a teen audience, there is always some level of predictability. Some of the pairings and events are easily guessed ahead of time but, fortunately, for the most part, this movie kept me on my toes.

In addition to this, I didn’t understand what the film was trying to say. Understand that I have consumed no media relating to the creation of the film, only the film itself, so please fill me in if you happen to know.

All in all, I enjoyed the film and it was definitely different to what I expected it to be. There were a few thrills and I both appreciated and rolled my eyes during the tense last third of the movie.

I would definitely encourage you to watch this with a group of friends if you are so inclined.

Thanks for reading!!