“I will fight to create a better place for all of us so that our family will never be destroyed. “

From The Darkest Minds.

When a new disease rips across America, it leaves children around the ages of 10 to 18 either dead or (much rarer) changed forever.  Camps are set up “fix” the kids and keep everyone else safe from them; 10-year-old Ruby (Lidya Jewett) is one of the children who is changed, so she is taken from her family and sent to a camp.  These camps are filled with thousands of children who after surviving the disease have received certain powers and been classified by their abilities: Green with high intelligence, Blue with telekinesis, Gold can conduct electricity, Orange with mind control, and Red that create fire.  When she arrives at camp, Ruby (Amandia Stenberg) is classified as a Green and spends the next six years in a nightmare as she hides a secret.  When a test places Ruby’s life in danger, a doctor (Mandy Moore) helps break her out and reveals that she’s a member of the rebel Children’s League.  Ruby is unsure of joining the movement, so she runs away and meets three kids: Liam (Harris Dickinson), Chubs (Skylan Brooks), and Zu (Miya Cech).  The small group takes her in as they search for a camp and a mysterious leader (Patrick Gibson) that supposedly allows kids a place to use their abilities safely.  Even as they try to avoid the League and a bounty hunter (Gwendoline Christie), Ruby feels herself falling for the make-shift family and fears that her secret will destroy them all.

Amazing visual effects, a talented cast, and big action scenes make this an interesting visual feast for viewers.  This movie adaptation of the 2012 young adult novel will be both endearing and frustrating for fans of the book; some scenes are pulled straight from the book, but then the film finishes in a way that doesn’t make much sense in light the original story and majority of the film.  While The Darkest Minds fell short of its full potential, it is still an enjoyable movie for those looking for an interesting story with light a blend of several genres.

| Rated: PG-13 | Running Time: 105 minutes |Genre: action/sci-fi/movie adaptation |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 3 of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 2 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|