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The Darkest Minds (2018), PG-13, ★


Another YA adaptation? Ok. Let's not beat around the bush. I don't want to waste my time setting up an introduction to what I have to say. I was bored and bewildered by the young adult material that was rehashed by other YA novels and films that are better and more tight in its story. The execution is poorly set up, boring me and manipulating me into buying into the ideas having teenagers reciting grown-up lines that I would not hear today's society. This movie is a hodgepodge of familiar elements and moments that made me yawn.

A disease known as the IAAN wipes out 98% of the children in the United States. Those children who have survived developed powers the government have found dangerous and outcasting them to be put in camps to be tested and even if more powerful, they'd be eliminated. Ruby Daly (Amandla Stenberg) is brought to a camp called Thurmond and is brought to the testing facility where her powers (mind manipulation) classify her as an "Orange". The doctor tries to inject something into her but as she touched him, he classifies her as "Green".

The officers at Thurmond are testing a subatomic frequency that allow kids to suffer in agony and also make Ruby pass out. Ruby is helped by Dr. Begbie/Cate (Mandy Moore) as she is significantly friendlier to her than her colleagues. After Cate and Ruby escape by the latter using her powers, Cate takes her to a group called The Children's League (sounds like a clothing store at the mall) so they can protect her. She meets a little girl named Zu (Miya Cech), who manipulates currents to try to get away from Ruby. Liam (Harris Dickinson) and Charles/Chubs (Skylan Brooks) are nervous when thy see Ruby in the van but tells them that she's a Green. As they continue to drive to find a compound for refuge, they are pursued by a Tracer (bounty hunter) named Lady Jane (Gwendolyn Christie).


This movie is a boring version of Logan with the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic setting as the kids are on a journey to find refuge. Nothing much ever worked for me except a couple of performances by Amandla Stenberg and Miya Cech. I will give them their hopes of the good message and idea in this movie but nothing seems to be executed and it becomes more complicated than usual aiming at other audiences than the young demographic. It would seem to bore the younger audiences.

Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson (who made Kung Fu Panda 2 (underrated animated sequel) and 3) is missing coherence in the screenplay as it follows not fully developed young adult characters going through the motions with the supernatural powers plus trying to spin a familiar and schlocky romance that seems to follow the formula than rather having the relationship something new. And, the action does not make as much sense as I could not comprehend the reason after the reason was brought up by the villains. Spoilers with not much context, who are they going to fight? This movie is a tired, recycled product that should have been made and produced way before the genre was dying down. It is not as bad as the Divergent sequels but it is close.

*


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