The Darkest Minds – ** OUT OF 4
Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2) creates a dystopian story that eerily resembles the internment camps set up here in the USA to deal with our immigration crisis. In the interest of full disclosure, the story is loosely adapted from a YA series of the same name by scribe Alexandra Bracken.
It stars Amandia Stenberg as Ruby, a teen whose unique genome makes her super human and spares her life from a wicked child killing virus. Ruby leads her fellow teens into a resistance against the anachronistic elders who briefly incarcerate them. The story is mostly about four adolescents as they encounter visceral experiences much like children that grow up in a timeless war zone. The film is replete in high production values but lacks a compelling and engaging story. Its hocus-focus including levitation, is not enough for mature audiences. Its attempt to lift its audience up mostly leaves you with a sense of narrative dysfunction.
