The Darkest Minds
20th Century Fox | Release Date: August 3, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
14
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJul 31, 2018
The Darkest Minds is smart. It has a lot to convey to its young audience, and the strong cast does everything in their power to illustrate those themes and to bring their characters to earnest, believable life. But it’s not quite thrilling enough to sneak its mission statements under anyone’s noses, so it plays a bit more like a manifesto than a sci-fi thriller. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlAug 9, 2018
Yuh Nelson proves adept with her young actors, drawing out relaxed and detailed performances while carefully managing the space between them in the frame. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 2, 2018
The storytelling is bald and the logistics remain vague. The adult characters, especially a sadistic prison guard, are laughably overblown and the simplistic dialogue betrays the script’s YA roots. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 31, 2018
Without watering down the action, Nelson soft-pedals the most disturbing ideas in such a way that young audiences won’t be overwhelmed with gloom, instead inviting them to identify with the film’s empowered female heroine as she struggles to overcome her crippling lack of self-confidence and embrace what makes her special. Read full review
59
IGNWitney SeiboldAug 1, 2018
The Darkest Minds is a wholly rote YA sci-fi adventure that continues a genre that is pretty much dying out. Despite this, the film is capable and enjoyable and features a great lead actress in Amandla Stenberg. Read full review
58
UproxxVince ManciniAug 7, 2018
Long on set up and leaden dialogue, short on resolution, The Darkest Minds is set in an apocalyptic future where teen movies no longer have endings. Oh, wait that’s the present. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandJul 31, 2018
The film zips through its final act at breakneck speed, doling out answers and riling up new conflicts with little care for how they impact a standalone story, just setting up for a franchise that might never come to fruition. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelAug 2, 2018
It’s formulaic. It’s predictable. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 2, 2018
For those already jaded by the onslaught of YA fantasy universes, The Darkest Minds is on the forgettably “safe” end of the genre’s coded spectrum. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 2, 2018
I suppose it’s possible to argue that The Darkest Minds can be enjoyed for what it is. Unfortunately, that “what” refers to something incomplete. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 2, 2018
The director, Jennifer Yuh Nelson (“Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Kung Fu Panda 3”), keeps the pace fast and the exposition flowing; the movie is almost comfortingly watchable. In her first live-action feature, she shows a flair for natural light and doesn’t lean too heavily on effects. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJul 31, 2018
Rising star Amandla Stenberg has a few affecting moments as one of the few teen survivors of a mysterious pandemic, but director Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s live-action feature debut mostly walks in the footsteps of bolder and more original takes on similar sci-fi subject matter. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 31, 2018
Young moviegoers who haven't yet tired of cookie-cutter dystopias will find a sympathetic protagonist played by Amandla Stenberg; but viewers who've taken this ride enough times to want, for instance, subtext addressing real-world oppression should look elsewhere. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillAug 14, 2018
The pieces of a potential franchise are put in play here without stakes being raised or pulses quickened. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 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. That said, the casting is strong. Read full review
40
EmpireAmy WestAug 13, 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. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaAug 6, 2018
The Darkest Minds is just too foggy to make out much of anything in. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloAug 3, 2018
It’s a promising start, but one that ultimately doesn’t quite deliver. The movie’s plot feels scant, as if it’s only skimming the surface of what it’s like to be a child who has no one to trust or turn to in this world. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeAug 3, 2018
The Darkest Minds never communicates the overwhelming horror of a society whose children are either dead or in the process of being exterminated, or the hopelessness of kids discovering that every potential benefactor may have ulterior motives. Read full review
38
The Associated PressLindsey BahrAug 1, 2018
The story is not only derivative of so many other dystopias and kids with power sagas, but, and perhaps worst of all, it never even really gets going — a clear and infuriating set up for some future installment. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Aug 3, 2018
A generic and frankly very tedious compendium of YA clichés. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyDana SchwartzAug 2, 2018
There is no resolution for any of the story lines haphazardly dangling like electrical wires. No villain is defeated, no secrets are explained. When the credits roll, there has been no catharsis for the 90 minutes of movie preceding it, which makes it all feel like a protracted introductory sequence for a sequel that, god willing, will never come. Read full review
30
The VergeNoah BerlatskyAug 3, 2018
Instead of building on its most pertinent themes — or on any themes — The Darkest Minds wanders around haplessly in a fog of tired tropes and unmotivated bits of plot. It has neither inspiration nor purpose, and it eventually, almost literally, effervesces into blank irrelevance. Read full review
30
Film Journal InternationalRebecca PahleAug 2, 2018
The Darkest Minds isn’t atrocious so much as it’s just plain dull, which is a worse kind of bad to be. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleAug 2, 2018
In another universe, the juxtaposition of family and tragedy might’ve produced something unique; instead, it feels like a pastiche of borrowed story beats from better movies. Read full review
25
Original-CinJim SlotekAug 2, 2018
It’s hard to imagine The Darkest Minds becoming the franchise it was intended to be. The plot is murky confusing and unengaging, and the entire genre may just be worn out by now. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 1, 2018
It’s a tediously derivative tale. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 2, 2018
The movie is 105 minutes long but seems about 45 minutes longer, with uneventful stretches and at least three sections where the action stops for musical interludes featuring goopy pop music. Read full review
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