The Darkest Minds

The era of the dystopian young adult book franchises has officially come to an end; now that J.K. Rowling has returned to writing stories in the Wizarding World, most other adaptations that tried to hold that special place in tact have all pretty much died out. The Hunger Games came to a finish after they took on the mantle, The Maze Runner came and went without much word, The Divergent Series killed itself dead in its tracks by movie 3, and the rest went like The Mummy and died before even starting; the latter of which, a category, in which The Darkest Minds falls under.

The Darkest Minds tells of a world in which half the kids in the world are either killed or granted mysterious powers, by this weird disease. When a rare gifted child, Ruby, escapes from the concentration camps, she must team up with other youths to revolt against the govern-oh my god, could this movie be any more paint-by-numbers?

This has got to be the most recycled pile of shit I’ve seen in awhile; nothing about this movie is the least bit original, and you can trace it way past other YA stories to simply every other damn massiah story we’ve seen before; hell, this makes Pan look like Avatar by a landslide comparison if you ask me. Even if it was cliche, the movie is directed so lazily and cheap, that there are scenes that look like they just found a random hotel or house, and did nothing to change it up; or how about some of the fight scenes, in these SUPPOSED occupied cities (they did establish that), with some of the most uninspired choreography...keep in mind, this is a movie produced by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things and Night at the Museum) and directed by Jennifer Yuh-Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 & 3), so I don’t understand what they were thinking going for this melancholy tone that doesn’t fit their style at all. Had they gone in either the direction of making it parody or super stupid that it makes it hilarious, this movie probably would have stuck out better than this.

Amanda Stenberg (Rue from The Hunger Games) is clearly trying to make this work, but after this and Everything, Everything from last year, she really needs to pick a better agent; her character spends most of the time being told what to do, trying not to trust anyone but ends up falling for the OBVIOUS tricks...are we going to start adding “dystopian dumbass rebel heroines” to the list of cliches that are getting old? Or how about Patrick Gibson as the villain, because he’s so obviously the villain, and never NOT acts like a villain? And it isn’t just them that’s wasted: Harris Dickinson (Trust), Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie (The Force Awakens), Golden Brooks (Girlfriends), and Bradley Whitford (Get Out, The West Wing). All of them look like this is all for a paycheck and nothing else.

Considering how bad this film bombed, there’s no way in hell that a sequel is going to happen. Ladies and gentlemen, The Darkest Minds better officially be the final nail in the coffin for dystopian YA adaptations for the next few years. With how little and uninspired this movie is, it’s hard to keep trying to draw in material worth discussing, and its BORING. Just go see or rent something else.

Rating: F