There is nothing especially interesting about Neil Burger's latest film, Voyagers. Sure, the movie does start off with a novel concept, but the familiarity creeps in before the first act has finished, and Voyagers becomes a predictable run-of-the-mill experience, only this time in a fancy spaceship. Burger tries to reimagine "The Lord of the Flies" with enlightened young adults in space, but the concept comes across as bland, boring, and ultimately predicable. It is obvious that there are many themes the director is trying to touch on, but they all seem half-baked and forced; they never fully develop into anything that might stay with the audience.
Earth is quickly becoming uninhabitable. A new livable planet has been discovered, but it will take 86 years to reach. In order to successfully arrive and repopulate the new planet, Richard (Colin Farrell), develops a program that will raise and shelter a group of children who will save humanity. These kids will live the vast majority of their life on a spaceship and will likely be dead before the ship even lands. As they grow older, curious "voyagers" Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead) start to question various happenings around the ship. As they uncover more secrets, the crew must decide what to believe.
At the highest level, Voyagers seems like a really cool idea. The concept of sending a repopulation crew to a new planet in order to save humanity could have been very promising. Unfortunately, Burger scratches the bare minimum of the surface, and mostly relies on his all-too-familiar futuristic style. The acting doesn't really contribute anything of note either; co-stars Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp (who plays Sela), have decent enough chemistry, but their roles are so uninteresting that it hinders them. Scenes featuring Whitehead are especially hard to watch, as his character and the setting are not a good fit for him.
Although the film's camera work is pretty good, the environment does nothing to accent it. This is supposed to be a futuristic, massive, livable spaceship, and it falls short in almost every way. The set induces boredom, as the long white hallways and big touch screen control stations offer nothing to the film. The ambience is saved a bit by the way Burger uses lighting to build up the tension, but this is largely short-lived and necessary. It would have been nice to explore what it actually means to live out one's entire life on a space craft. These characters are never really given a chance to be interesting, even when they "wake up."
By the time the end credits roll, Voyagers is just, well, disappointing. There seems to be too much indecision in every scene. Nothing is fully developed, and moments are filled with unfulfilled hope. There really is a great movie buried somewhere in here, but it just is not unlocked through Berger's direction and storytelling.