To say the film suggests a mix of hazy political allegory and Henry Darger's outside-art classic The Story of the Vivian Girls is to make it sound more interesting than it really is.

| Mar 4, 2020

The Darkest Minds puts an X-Men spin on the typical 'teens in dystopia' YA formula, but the result is more derivative than creative.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 17, 2018

The film is framed so deliberately as a prelude to more exciting times to come in its sequels that it renders the ending oddly anti-climactic.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 15, 2018

This hopeless adaptation of some book you've never heard of breaks new ground in its determination not to surprise.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 14, 2018

The film shares far too many tropes with other YA sci-fi properties - The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent - to make a mark in the unforgiving post-apocalyptic wasteland of the adolescent market.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 12, 2018

None of it is new, none of it is interesting and the storytelling is tissue-paper thin.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 10, 2018

The Darkest Minds boasts a decent cast and a fairly interesting premise centred on likeable characters. But its banality squashes any potential it had, resulting in a safe, forgettable sci-fi.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 10, 2018

In spite of the title, the film doesn't want to take us to too many dark places. In fact, it manages the unlikely feat of making a nightmarish, futuristic world seem a bit like a summer camp.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 9, 2018

Despite its radical potential, it's disappointing to see this story fall back on what's considered typical teen stuff.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 8, 2018

Unless you're a glutton for dystopian teen anguish, I'd skip it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 8, 2018

The pieces of a potential franchise are put in play here without stakes being raised or pulses quickened.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 8, 2018

There's a lot that's confusing or poorly set up. That's a script problem, but also a lack of emotional direction and momentum.

| Aug 6, 2018

The Darkest Minds is such a formulaic hodgepodge of secondhand plot points that it can't help but feel like an insult to its target demographic: just another case of adults trying to manipulate kids, this time by bilking them out of their allowance.

| Original Score: D+ | Aug 4, 2018

While not as annoying as the one in that first Maze Runner or 2009's Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant proved to be, is still rather obnoxious and unsatisfactory.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2018

Even... rushing through a story better articulated in the book, the filmmakers demonstrate that neither they nor this adaptation can be easily written off.

| Aug 3, 2018

"The Darkest Minds" is in desperate need of a spark, any spark. References to "Watership Down" and "Harry Potter" only serve to show how far this film is from the classics it admires.

| Original Score: D+ | Aug 3, 2018

The film's bittersweet conclusion is strong enough to provide real narrative impetus for the inevitable sequel.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2018

Notable for its willingness to display coarse language (kids these days), and nasty behavior - it's a dystopia; when mind-control powers are in play, is it really so surprising that they get used for murder, rape, and torture?

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 3, 2018

Mutant powers, a post-apocalyptic setting, a main character whose coming of age coincides with her becoming a hero: "The Darkest Minds" recycles many popular cinematic tropes, resulting in a familiar young-adult drama that struggles to find its voice.

| Aug 3, 2018

The environment in which stories like The Hunger Games or Divergent gained followings has changed, and The Darkest Minds has not adapted to survive it.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 3, 2018