Review of The Darkest Minds (2018) by Wayne K — 01 Dec 2018

The Young Adult genre has produced a few good films, but too many were made in such a short space of time, and as such the market became rapidly oversaturated. The Darkest Minds isn't the worst of the bunch by any stretch, but it's still nothing more than run of the mill.

It's nowhere near as trite, tedious or overlong as Divergent, and the first half does offer up some intrigue. Unfortunately, not enough is explained as the plot rushes along. No attempt is made to explain why the virus is only killing children, and why those who don't die end up with superpowers.

Amandla Stenberg is a likeable lead, but none of her work compares to The Hate U Give, a far superior 2018 film she also headlined. The dialogue contains all the platitudes you get in films with shady organisations, with the characters spouting lines like 'You can't trust them', 'You'll be safe with us', 'I know a place where we can hide' amongst others.

The romance between the leads never feels anything other than forced and unnatural, only existing because a YA film needs a romance, or it won't satisfy to its target audience. As a result, it just drags the film down.

The climax suffers from stupid baddies being stupid, and the ending suggest we'll be seeing more instalments in the future. Thanks, but I'll pass.