The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds

Starring Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Skylan Brooks, Miya Chech

Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson

 

 The Story:
A mysterious illness has killed countless children, but for those who survived, they've acquired superhuman abilities.  The adults fear these children, so they take them to camps where they designate them by colors - green are harmless and uber-intelligent, blue can manipulate matter, yellow can manipulate electricity, but those who are designated red or orange are deemed too dangerous and are immediately terminated.

Ruby Daly (Amandla Stenberg) is one of those orange-level children, but she has the ability to make people do whatever she wants, as well as see into their minds and also erase herself from their existence.  She manages to avoid detection at the camp for six years, when she's finally found out.  Doctor Cate Begby (Mandy Moore) rescues Ruby before the government kills her, telling her that she's a member of a group known as the Children's League, and they're planning on rescuing the children and fighting the government that means to kill them.

Unsure of Dr. Begby, and still frightened by her own powers, Ruby runs off and meets fellow teens Liam (Harris Dickinson), Chubs (Skylan Brooks), and Zu (Miya Cech), who are on the run after escaping another camp.  Liam is a blue telekinetic, Clubs is a green savant, and Zu is a yellow electrokinetic, and they bring Ruby into their group.  They plan to find the mysterious East River, a place run by an Orange-level teen known as the Slip Kid, where kids can live in peace and harmony.  After finding the community, Ruby is highly valued by the Slip Kid (Patrick Gibson), as the two of them are the only Orange-level kids in the camp.  However, danger looms at every turn, and Ruby must face her own past fears and become the leader and warrior she's meant to be before the government finds them and kills them all.

The Synopsis:
The Young Adult Novel-Film craze has been long dead for awhile now, mostly due to the fact that there's only a certain number of times you can sit through a post-apocalyptic world ruled by teenagers with special abilities who are feared by the adults in the world.  Films like "The Hunger Games," "Divergent," and "The Maze Runner" have sucked dry any desire to see another film of that caliber, which is unfortunate for "The Darkest Minds," because I actually enjoyed it - even if there's a slim-to-no chance of a franchise being made from it.

Yes, the film is basically a re-hashing of the aforementioned film series: "The Hunger Games" in that there's kids fighting kids (and also features Amandla Stenberg in both); "Divergent" in that the kids are grouped in different categories based on their abilities; "The Maze Runner" in that the kids have to learn to live together as a community.  Then there's the "X-Men" aspect of the film where the kids aren't just normal kids, but kids with superpowers.

However, not even those powers are anywhere near as neat as they should be.  The majority of the kids have the power of super intelligence, which is alright but not very exciting (unlike the power of "luck," which is actually a cool cinematic power no matter what Deadpool says).  Then others are typical telekinetics, who can move things with their minds.  Still others can manipulate electricity, and then there's the Orange-level kids who basically have Jedi mind powers who can infuse their will on other people, get into their memories, and erase themselves from existence if needed.  Then there's the Red-level kids, who basically are freaking insane as they emit fire from their mouths.

The film introduces us to Ruby, an Orange-level kid who endures the typical Hero's Journey that we've seen in countless other YA adaptations.  At first, she doesn't understand her powers - she accidentally erased herself from her parents' memories, and throughout the film struggles with that life-altering decision.  She shows moments of greatness as she convinces people to do her bidding in order to keep on the run, but never reaches her full potential until she reaches the East River.  Even then, she struggles more with falling in love with Liam and fearing touching him (as her power is used whenever her skin comes into contact with another person - basically she's Rogue) than fully understanding her own power.

You might think Ruby is a generic character, much like Katniss or Tris, and you'd be correct.  However, "Everything, Everything" star Amandla Stenberg gives Ruby a more well-rounded characterization, and I personally find her very interesting to see.  She exhibits a youthful innocence and fierce determination all rolled into one, who is simply an amazing actress with her ability to act just from her face.  As she slowly comes into her own, she showcases her acting ability and plays to her strengths, which was really nice to see and made me sad all at the same time, because I really want to see how the series continues, but due to its poor performance, I doubt we'll see any continuation of the franchise.

What the film has going for it, as mentioned earlier, is the acting ability of its leads.  Stenberg electrifies the screen, and "Beach Rats" star Harris Dickinson is slowly emerging as a leading young man.  As Liam, he balances power and softness in equal measure, giving another captivating all-around performance.  Skylan Brooks plays the intelligent Chubs, who always stays one step ahead of everyone else.  Miya Cech plays Zu, a mute electrokinetic who is purely a kid at heart, who only wants a friend and mentor.  These four actors anchor the film in a sense of realness and emotion that could've ended badly if their chemistry was nonexistent, but that's not the case here.  They bring their A-game, and it's due to that fact I found myself captivated by what they were going through.  Even though I knew the film didn't have an "actual ending," I was still anticipating what would happen next.

With the superpower take, the action is also heightened above other YA adaptations.  It's here where the biggest comparisons to the "X-Men" franchise become the most apparent, as you see Liam using his nature-wielding telekinesis to throw tree trunks on the road, see Zu electrocute an army of soldiers, and Ruby use her Jean Grey-style power to get out of sticky situations.  It's fun, but mindless - nothing we haven't seen before, but it's still exciting to see.

Then there's the romance aspect between Ruby and Liam, which hearkens back to other YA adaptations including Katniss and Peeta, and Tris and Four.  The two slowly grow for each other, and through the dangers they face together, they bond even more.  Yet even this generic love story has a nice twist to it, one that I haven't seen in other YA adaptations yet, so that was refreshing.  Even though it pretty much copies other adaptations, that's one aspect that makes it different than the others.

The Summary:
While it's a part of the now-tired YA adaptation subgenre, "The Darkest Minds" is elevated by great performances and fun action sequences, even if the story is simple and something we've seen ad-nauseam in countless films before.

The Score: A-