Voyagers (2021)

Directed by Neil Burger. Starring Tye Sheridan, Fionn Whitehead, Lily-Rose Depp, Chanté Adams, Viveik Kalra, Colin Farrell, Archie Madekwe, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Quintessa Swindell, Wern Lee, Madison Hu. [PG-13]

Emotionally-sterile and ultra-derivative science fiction allegory mashes up its influences so inelegantly (and offers so little of its own spark of originality) that a mere plot description will suffice to spare the consumer a couple of wasted hours. In fact, “plot description” may be too generous, so fifteen-words-or-less describing the premise should do—teenage astronauts aboard an interplanetary spaceship lose impulse control and turn horny and violent. Populated by a bunch of interchangeable Calvin Klein store mannequins (and adult leader Colin Farrell, who is predictably dispatched pretty early on), this lazy futuristic rubbish isn’t content to merely copy/update “Lord of the Flies,” but also borrows themes, plot points, and archetypes from numerous other sci-fi sources (“A Brave New World,” Logan’s Run, etc.), all without adding anything new or thoughtful to the now-common tropes. The chase and fight scenes late in the movie are just as unexciting as watching the automatons slowly “come to life”; at least a couple of those scenes provide bad laughs, like when Whitehead immediately starts groping Depp’s breast because, you know, urges. Following the routine story trajectory is far less fun than picking out the myriad plot holes—e.g., if each new generation aboard the ship on its nearly hundred-year journey is going to be spawned through in vitro fertilization from stored sperm samples, why keep the males around to consume resources? Director Burger also wrote and co-produced.

33/100