Voyagers - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Voyagers



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Neil Burger’s Voyagers can be summed up in just a few words. The plot seemed familiar when I read the press release, but not more than 30 minutes into the movie I realized why exactly this whole thing felt eerily familiar. It’s basically “Lord of the Flies” in space. Kind of like how Lost in Space was a sci-fi remake of the classic Swiss Family Robinson, Burger takes Orwell’s “Lord of the Flies” and packages it up in a teeny bopper package and tries to resell it as high art. I’m not sure whether everyone involved in the product just needed a timeout or what, but the end film making result is a hilarious mess of a film that pretty much turns Orwell into young adult chaff, complete with teenagers, stupid decisions, and a boringly derivative plot that just reeks of mediocrity.

The movie starts out like most dystopian sci-fi films. We’ve screwed up Earth bad enough that we NEED to head out into space and colonize other worlds so humanity can survive. Earth is toast, but we’ve found a planet hundreds of light years away that can support life, so the biggest and brightest minds devised a way to get a colony there. To hedge their bets and make sure that they didn’t self destruct along the way, the scientists decided to breed genetically chosen children inside of an isolated area, training them to run the ship, so that when they launched they wouldn’t have the hang-ups and emotional attachment to Earth like normal human beings. That way they will follow orders to a T, procreate on the ship when necessary, and arrive 85+ years later during the 3rd generation of humans on the ship (seriously, how could then even REMOTELY go wrong?!).

Their caretaker Richard (Colin Farrell, pretty much the only adult in the movie) decides that he needs to go with and supervise the initial batch of humans so that they grow up safely. However, one of the crew named Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead) find something out that they weren’t supposed to. Inside the ship’s nutritional system they are being fed an enzyme that dulls sexual desires, makes the person more docile and susceptible to control, and keeps them from experiencing most human emotions. Furious at being told what to do, Zac and Christopher stop taking the drug and soon they start to feel what REAL humans feel. Except they have never been trained to deal with these feelings and emotions. Soon they’re running hog wild on the ship and get out of control, and in the aftermath Richard is left dead. Zac decides to take control of the ship, turning everyone against Christopher in a mad rush for teenage emotional power, and before long the entire mission is hanging by a thread as the teenagers indulge themselves in every pleasure and sensation that they’ve missed out on their entire lives.

The movie tries to hide the real “Lord of the Flies” plot by inserting an alien plot line into the story, but that’s really just a red herring to keep the plot moving along long enough for their to be a final showdown between Christoper and Zac as they vie over the ship’s power. It keeps the “mystery” going long enough to pad it out so that the movie isn’t over by the hour point. At the end of the day the movie is a pretty typical remake of “Lord of the Flies”, just with all the hilarious teen angst that you could ever hope for (or dread really), and no real redeeming quality.

Neil Burger is a solid director, having directed several really fun films like Limitless, The Illusionist and The Upside, but here he pulls out all his teen angst that he put forth in Divergent and just lazily remakes an Orwell classic. I really think that there COULD have been a decent movie made using “Lord of the Flies” as a base, but a lazy and rote remake with young adult fantasy just wasn’t the answer I guess.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence, some strong sexuality, bloody images, a sexual assault and brief strong language




Video:

I haven’t been able to track down any definitive information on the source material, but according to several online sources and talking with a few other reviewer friends I know, the movie is rumored to have been shot using the Sony Venice camera for the particular look Berger was going for. I couldn’t find ANY information on the digital intermediate resolution used for the film, but since it was given a 4K release and the Venice shoots much higher than 4K I’m hoping a 4K master was used. Since Lionsgate didn’t send out any 4K screeners for reviewers I’ll just have to guess and if any of you have any definitive information I can update this section.

Anyways, the digitally shot film looks impeccable, with a light blue color grading and an almost apple I-pod glossiness to it. There’s an almost monochromatic look to the production with heavy blues and grays dominating, and almost no other colors except a few glimpses of a yellow jumpsuit, or splash of blood to change the palate at all. Clarity is sharp and clean 99% of the time, but I did notice some banding outside in space (which is pretty natural), otherwise this is a very clean and clear looking 1080p disc.







Audio:

I had a near heart attack going into the audio menu to check out what we had and seeing the option of “English Dolby Digital”. My heart seized up a bit as I thought Lionsgate had gone lazy on us and put in a 5.1 Lossy Dolby Digital track, but it seems that it’s just a typo. The actual track is a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless mix that is quite solid. The ambiance is intense and claustrophobic, as the mix is tamped down and constrained a good bit to induce that sense of dread and crushing oppression. There’s a few moments where the surrounds light up, but it’s mostly a very dialog heavy film with the tense music filling out the back end and the low end alike. A whoosh from escaping oxygen rushes by the ears, as do a few more “excitable” moments that I won’t spoil, but overall the track is very low key and dramatic instead of wild and expansive.









Extras:

• "Born for This: The Cast of Voyagers" Featurette
• "Against Type: Unlearning Human Nature" Featurette
• "Survival of the Fittest: The Physicality of Voyagers" Featurette
• "On the Surface: The Visual Style of Voyagers" Featurette
• "Hidden Chambers: Tour the Humanitas" Featurette

Final Score: ​

There was supposedly a 4K UHD disc of this as well, but being that Lionsgate isn’t shipping 4K screeners at the moment I guess we can be satisfied with 1080p. Either way, I’m not exactly going to be hunting down the 4K copy of this movie anyways, and I kind of feel sorry for the marketing team who had to TRY and salvage this for home video. Much like Chaos Walking it is a tiny ripple in the cinematic waters, and a movie that will largely be forgotten about in a month or so. The Blu-ray itself looks and sounds nice, but the weak movie and weaker special features leaves me not really recommending this for anything but a daytime boredom watch on Netflix at best. Skip It.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Colin Farrell, Tye Sheridan, Lilly-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead, Chante Adams
Directed by: Neil Burger
Written by: Neil Burger
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 108 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: June 15th, 2021

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[Epoxy1]

I went in with very low expectations and actually enjoyed it (my wife did too). It didn't break any new ground, but we thought it was entertaining. Maybe it's because it was the first "new" release we had watched in what seems like months and we just wanted to see something different?