Review of The Thinning (2016) by Chandler H — 08 Nov 2016

Let me set this out in sections, because this will need it.

CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Pros-.

-Innovative plot.

-Unique narrative.

-Good use of small-set style (not a lot of movement or new areas, contained well).

-Realistic, futuristic technology.

-Depersonalizing the villians with masks, makes it easier to get unsettled by them.

-Semi-passable attempt at a twist ending.

Cons-.

-Bad math. Like, really bad math. "5% of the population" does not mean "5% starting in 2nd grade and 5% of the remainder of each following year". Also, "5%" of a class of roughly 25 2nd graders is 1 kid, not the 4 they pulled out.

-The dialogue made it seem like there was only 1 school in Texas that was doing it. "Introducing competition in the classroom...Take that Oregon, Vermont.".

-Super cheesy bad guy.

-Overly violent for (what seemed to be) mercenary forces.

-Return duct work cannot support your weight, much less the weight of two fully grown teenagers.

-If a magnet is strong enough to pick up that keychain sized keycard, it's strong enough to wipe whatever code is on it.

-If they've been doing that for 25 years ("25 years ago, the world wasn't looking so good"), there would still be the same issue of feeding the workers they "stole" from the thinnings.

-Why did they show us the "failing" of Ellie if nothing was going to be mentioned about it again? That could have been the turning point of shutting down the whole system or introducing an underground movement against it or something.

Overall-.

Good attempt, good premise, but nothing terribly special. Lots of plot holes but nonetheless a good plot.