The Darkest Minds movie review

Grade: C+

Rating: PG-13, 105 minutes

In a Nutshell: Yep, another teenage dystopian adaptation of a book into a movie. This time, there is an X-Men type of twist and the fighting spirit of The Hunger Games vibe. First of all, I’ve never read the book, soooo….I watched several YouTube reviews from teenagers who loved the book and were experts on every scene. Their conclusion? The book is always better than the movie. I agree….well, except for the The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring movie franchise! I could never get into those books, but I absolutely loved the movies.

Tips for parents:

Some profanity and name-calling.
Some kids are in perilous situations.
Bullying.

Uplifting theme:

Friendship
Family
“Never be ashamed of who you are.” – Clancy Gray (Patrick Gibson)
“Everyone has a place in the world, a responsibility, a purpose.” – Clancy Gray
Step into the light to protect our greatest cause: our family.
“The only ones who can help us are us.” – Ruby Daly (Amandla Stenberg)
Female empowerment
Trust
We are more than our labels.

Things I liked:

I loved Ruby’s Jedi mind trick powers.
Everyone loves Mandy Moore.
I always get a kick out of Bradley Whitford in anything. I would have liked to see him more in this movie.
Chubs (Skylan Brooks) seems to be really popular with audiences.
Fans of the popular TV show Stranger Things TV Series Overview will be happy to see Catherine Dyer and Peyton Wich.

Things I didn’t like:

Alexander Bracken, the author of The Darkest Minds series (3 Book Series), is seen as a nurse at the end of the movie.Yep, it looks like a sequel is coming.
It’s very slow moving.
As a parent, it’s so annoying to watch movies where kids are portrayed as so much smarter and morally superior to adults.
There were some scenes that had odd artsy background choices.
Movies where kids are supposedly much smarter and morally superior to adults always bug me.
The movie is supposed to be about kids, but most of the stars are 17 at the youngest.

Interesting lines: