Alexandra Bracken is an author who specializes in Young Adult (or YA) novels. Being basically a young adult herself at the age of 31, she has just been there and just did that. Even though she’s young in age, she’s pretty seasoned in terms of experience. She already has more than ten novels to her name and now one of her works is about to have its glorious day in theaters. The Darkest Minds, a novel published in 2012 hopes to make a stand in a flailing genre.
Set in the near future, due to some unexplained reason, a good amount of children under the age of 18 have developed certain special abilities and have become a deadly threat to the adults that have ruled this world. Driven by fear of the unknown, the adults have decided to either kill or imprison these young prodigies depending on their level of special ability. Green, being the most docile and easy to subdue, to Red, being the most powerful and therefore, the most dangerous. Ruby (Amandla Stenberg) has an opportunity to escape, thanks to someone on the inside whose intentions are not fully known. Upon getting “free”, Ruby discovers that the world outside confined quarters is more deadly than she could ever have imagined. All Ruby wants to do is survive and live in peace but fate would have something different to say about that.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson is the director of The Darkest Minds and aside from Kung Fu Panda 2 & 3 she has no real experience to speak of, let alone help a movie that has aspirations of kicking off a new YA franchise. For every Hunger Games or Harry Potter there are ten other movies like The Host (2013), Beautiful Creatures (2013) or The 5th Wave (2016) that have failed miserably and killed the entire franchise. Book success does not guarantee movie success, not even close, actually.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s efforts fall about as flat as the lackluster actors that have been attached to this movie. Amandla Stenberg plays the lead role but is also very forgettable. Harris Dickinson, Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie, Bradley Whitford and Patrick Gibson try to give the hallow The Darkest Minds a little substance to build upon. Again, another disappointing aspect of this movie. The crappy hits just keep on coming.
The Darkest Minds is one of those movies that you door n’t realize how bad it is until you’re too far in. With a decent start you’ll give everything the benefit of the doubt while going with an optimistic “the glass is half full” approach. Pretty soon, however, you realize no one’s coming to top off your glass and the water you do have has a bug in it. You’re just doomed. And that’s what you’re in for. I sat on my thoughts for 24 hours thinking, more like hoping, that I could come up with some redeeming attributes. Nope. This is an unfulfilling 105 minute letdown. The YA book-to-movie movement needs to take some time off and become more quality-conscious.
There are not enough redeeming factors to recommend investing in a full price ticket. Actually, matinee prices are off of the table too. Half-watching The Darkest Minds at home while looking at your phone and talking to family/friends is probably the best way to go. Spreading out your focus is a much better way to tolerate this dude. We’re just going to go ahead and file this one in the surefire flop folder.
