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| photo courtesy of week99er.com |
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Jennifer
Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2) directs The
Darkest Minds, based on the young adult novel of the same name. The movie
takes place in a future where a mysterious disease kills some children and
gives supernatural powers to the survivors. Ruby (Amandla Stenberg), received incredibly
rare telepathic powers, which makes her a target for the government… as well as
several other interested parties. Together with her friends Liam (Harris
Dickinson), Chubs (Sklyan Brooks), and Zu (Miya Cech), Ruby must learn to
realize her potential if she’s going to survive.
Young adult dystopian adaptations,
once widely popular, have had a much harder time at the box office post-Hunger Games. Unlike superhero
movies—which compensate for an overcrowded market by embracing diversity of
tone and style—these films struggle to differentiate themselves from one
another. With The Darkest Minds, the
genre delivers one of its most inconsequential films yet.
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| photo courtesy of nerdist.com |
The Darkest Minds is
the type of movie that you’ve already seen before you step foot in the theater.
Totalitarian government? Check. Resilient hero? Check. Paper-thin love story?
Check. Thinly-veiled social commentary? Check, check, check. On nearly every level,
the movie settles for mimicking what other YA adaptations have done better. Meanwhile,
more promising features—like decent CGI, a serviceable character arc, and a
solid core cast—get lost in the mix.
Of course, The Darkest Minds isn’t the first YA
dystopian movie to lack imagination. But where others have cultivated interest
by focusing on action or theme, The
Darkest Minds has no outstanding feature to recommend it. Its action scenes
are anticlimactic. Its narrative feels uninspired. Its thematic relevance—which
easily could have been a core strength—is blunted. Its romance is (perhaps
appropriately) shallow and ridiculous.
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| photo courtesy of digitalspy.com |
In truth, there are
points in which The Darkest Minds doesn’t
even appear to be competently made (possibly the result of an overextended, minimal
budget). Acting, directing, and writing all disappoint: acting, in the poor
performance of most actors outside the core cast; directing, in one
inexplicably choppy sequence set inside an abandoned shopping mall; writing, in
inconsistent internal logic. Plagued by problems like these, The Darkest Minds doesn’t merit a watch
for anyone but die-hard genre fans.
TRAILER
Watch the trailer here.
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| photo courtesy of geektyrant.com |
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