Voyagers review

A spaceship millions of miles from home, filled with teenagers – what could possibly go wrong? That’s the idea behind this sci-fi drama that sends a group of genetically engineered kids from a failing Earth on an 86-year mission to find a new home.

Led by grown-up scientist Richard (Farrell), the mission plan is that these kids will grow up, breed a new generation (genetically in a lab, not the old-fashioned way behind the space ship bike sheds), and it will actually be their grandkids who will see and populate the new planet. To make sure the plan goes swimmingly, the teens are giving a drug mixed into their drink, called ‘Blue’, that keeps them docile and removes any of those pesky pubescent urges they would usually be having.

Of course, things start to go wrong when some of the kids – including pouty troublemaker Zac (Whitehead) – stop drinking the Blue and discover their hormones for the first time, leading to fights, inappropriate touching and even accusations of murder.

It’s all a bit Lord Of The Flies in Space, with Sheridan and Depp (as Christopher and Sela) aiming for relative sanity while the rest of the teens rampage about the ship (unlike real life, none of these teenagers seem to be the stay-in-bed-all-day types).

Each plot twist is pretty obvious, the main characters are thinly drawn and the supporting cast (including Game Of Thrones Isaac Hempstead Wright) are just extra bodies running up and down the white sci-fi corridors.

Farrell brings some weight to the proceedings but even he can’t distract from the predictable teens-gone-wild plot or the ill-advised device of using montages (of nature, explosions, war, etc) to visualise the kids’ growing descent into stupidity. Disappointing stuff.