Checked out the new YA adaptation film The Darkest Minds. This is based on a series of novels I’ve never read so I’m coming in fresh… except that the story seems to be just another version of X-Men… maybe X-Men crossed with Divergent or one of the other “lets organize all the teens by type” stories. Oh, and Darkest Minds is easily one of the worst movies I’ve seen this year. Just a pile of hot garbage.
The movie starts with a bunch of hand-waving the movie doesn’t really seem interested in covering… a plague has wiped out 90% of all children, leaving the survivors mutated with vague powers (from being really smart to telekinesis to mind control). Seriously… the movie barely has time to dwell on the idea of wiping out all children… not in terms of what ages are dying (pre-teens? teens?), how that affects the parents and society, if babies can be born, and do they die?, etc. The film is on fast-forward and I have to imagine the book takes this more seriously. But, yeah, its hard to drop such a bummer of a pot and then just hand-wave its implications away.
Anyhow, in response to the kids having mutant powers, they are all (I think) rounded up and put in internment camps where they are color-coded based on their danger. And it turns out the most dangerous (the darkest minds) are murdered. Our hero – a young teen girl – is such a mind. Her ability is some vague mind control and she manages to fool them into thinking she’s harmless. Six years later, she escapes with the help of the resistance… who she escapes from and winds up with another group of survivors… and then wind up with other survivors who are also the resistance, but a different resistance.
This movie’s script is DUMB. Seriously stupid. It’s vague, its inconsistent, it shows clear signs they chopped up the story leaving dialog that make no sense in context. For example, the mental abilities of the female lead are vague but powerful… but she says she can’t control them. The problem is, we’ve seen clear evidence that she can Obi-Wan people into doing what she wants. Or other characters with the same government-mandated color level have… the same powers? Similar powers? The movie doesn’t bother explaining it yet its a key plot point. Other lazy problems exist throughout… including some basic technical issues.
It doesn’t help it takes place in the countryside and they make a vague comment that everyone has moved back to the cities due to the plague… which only affected kids. I think. But sometimes there are people in the countryside… and sometimes the teens are noticed but not reported… because all kids are arrested or just some?
OK, I’ll stop complaining about plot and dialog problems. Which leaves me with little more to say…. other than its dull and plodding with uninteresting characters and forced, sudden romance subplots (and a love triangle, of course). And did I mention it ends two or three times… but never with a final conclusion because, hey, there’s three or four more books to film. As if this movie will get a sequel.
Anyhow, stay away. This movie doesn’t deserve your attention and the people who made it should be better at their jobs. Credit to the actors for trying, but they can’t survive the bad dialog and chopped up, random story and its problems.
Score: 56