Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

The Darkest Minds 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 1, 2018

Haven’t we seen this story before — several times, in fact? A mysterious substrain of kids with superpowers suddenly appears, and the world splits into various factions, with shadowy governmental conspiracies threatening the existence of a small band of revolutionaries — sound just a little familiar, maybe? The only challenging thing about The Darkest Minds for some viewers may therefore be deciding which previous so-called “YA” cinematic adaptation has been stolen from the most. There are elements of everything from The Divergent Series: 3-Film Collection to the Maze Runner Trilogy to The Hunger Games: Complete 4-Film Collection to the X-Men: Collection, the last of which is not an official “YA” franchise, but which has obviously informed a lot of The Darkest Minds’ already derivative plot mechanics.

The Darkest Minds is one of those films that is so clunkily written that it just kind of trots out “Moishe the Explainer” interstitials at several junctures, with characters just lapsing into expository monologues in order to clarity what’s going on. That begins right off the bat with some voiceover courtesy of focal character Ruby (played by Amandla Stenberg for most of the film, but with Lidya Jewett essaying the character as a younger girl). Ruby quickly documents a strange viral infection which is killing almost all of the world’s children. That has understandably made parents whose kids haven’t died fraught with panic and despair, including Ruby’s parents. In a supposedly important plot point that is really not detailed very clearly in the film, Ruby evidently catches the virus, and in touching her mother, erases her mother’s memory of her child. That leads to Ruby’s incarceration in a camp for the surviving children who are showing signs of the “disease”. Already The Darkest Minds is teetering on the edge of nonsensical plot elements, since Ruby is no longer recognized by her mother. Except — what about her father, and everyone else who knew this family had a daughter? But I guess in “high concept” films like this one, it’s best not to ask too many questions.

The bulk of the film takes place some years later, with Ruby initially still incarcerated at the concentration camp for mutants (well, really, that’s what it is, though Magneto is nowhere to be found). In another somewhat hilarious elision, an early vignette has a doctor walking over to a helpful wall chart which lists all the different “levels” of diseased children, all of whom have been conveniently stuffed into a color coded array that varies from green (just highly intelligent, nothing major to worry about) to the dreaded orange, which of course turns out to be Ruby’s classification. Luckily (?), Ruby has mind control capabilities and manages to more or less hypnotize the doctor into changing her to a “green”, since “oranges” are instantly killed as soon as they’ve been identified. Needless to say, Ruby’s “orange-ness” is ultimately discovered, but she’s broken out of the place by a seemingly helpful doctor named Cate Conner (Mandy Moore).

Of course, Cate’s motivations, or at least those of her cohort, are questionable, and Ruby escapes once again, finally finding refuge with a gaggle of kids who just kind of magically are where Ruby is, in yet another overly convenient and completely unexplained plot element. The kids are all different “colors”, with differing abilities, but there’s an instant connection between Ruby and Liam (Harris Dickinson), a boy with telekinetic powers. The kids all set off for a promised refuge which is evidently being run by another “orange”. Hot on their tail is Cate and her ally, as well as a nasty bounty hunter named Lady Jane (Gwendoline Christie). It’s all resolutely by the numbers, and the really annoying thing is that they’re other films’ numbers most of the time.

Speaking of kids of color (to pun horribly), perhaps the one slightly innovative element here is having a young African American heroine, along with the supposedly “courageous” choice to have her involved in an interracial romance. (Stendberg is evidently actually biracial in real life, but the character of Ruby is clearly shown with two African American parents.) But even this aspect is played clunkily, with a silly climax at the end which seems to suggest, “never mind, we were only kidding”. The pretty spectacular failure of this film at the box office may portend an end to this “franchise” even before it really gets started, something that a variety of other plot machinations, including a reveal about who’s in charge of the refugee camp for the mutant children, may have expended a lot of energy for to no real effect.

The Darkest Minds 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray.

The Darkest Minds is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. This is another digitally shot feature (one which I'm assuming was finished at a 2K DI) which shows noticeable if sometimes slight improvements in all sorts of fine detail. That begins from the first sequence with the little girl named Grace who has a seizure and dies from the disease in Ruby's elementary school. In the 4K UHD version, the fine weaving of her purple sweater (as well as the purple tones themselves) are more finely rendered in this version. Other fabrics like Ruby's red sweater or even some of the dowdier textures inside the kids' van are tighter looking now, and even some of the darkest scenes offer commendable fine detail on things like facial features and/or pores. Once again, though, some of the most noticeable differences are tweaks to the palette and greater detail offered courtesy of HDR. This aspect became especially prevalent throughout the many shots where the camera tends to be pointed toward light sources, where in this version at least some incremental improvement is made in being able to see detail through the kind of effulgent glows that accrue around characters due to this technique. Grading approaches actually can look a tad cooler in this presentation, at least at times, including the appropriately slate coloring to the first scene featuring President Gray. But there are some warmer tinges as well, with some interesting orange highlights in scenes like the hotel sequence or, later, the nighttime dance party at the mutant camp. Another kind of camp, namely the (more or less) concentration camp Ruby is sent to early in the film, offer much more distinctive green tones than in the 1080p Blu-ray version. There are some notable new pink highlights in a central scene between Ruby and the President's son late in the film at the refugee camp. The increased resolution doesn't exactly do wonders for sometimes clunky looking CGI, but on the whole this is an impressive if subtle upgrade to the 1080p Blu-ray viewing experience.

The Darkest Minds 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Darkest Minds' 4K UHD iteration takes the already excellent DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track available on the 1080p Blu-ray and (literally at times) elevates things with a nicely rendered Atmos track. Right off the bat, with the opening sound montage that includes a swell of strings and the voices of kids enjoying their lunch break at school, there is clear placement of wafting effects, and that continues, at least in dribs and drabs, throughout the rest of the film, probably most noticeably in the big action sequences like the insane car chase or later during the dance party at the refugee camp. As with the "standard" DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track on the 1080p Blu-ray, there is nice discrete channelization of effects, including a lot of ambient environmental effects in the many outdoor scenes, though in the Atmos rendering, some details, like fluttering breezes, seem to pass more overhead. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly on this enjoyable if kind of rote sounding track.

The Darkest Minds 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 4K UHD disc ports over the Audio Commentary that's also on the 1080p Blu-ray disc. The 1080p Blu-ray disc included in this package features all of the supplements detailed in our The Darkest Minds Blu-ray review.

The Darkest Minds 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even the best YA film adaptations have hit a snag or two as they've moved on to subsequent entries. Maybe the good news here is that it looks unlikely that The Darkest Minds will have any follow ups, but, who knows? — maybe Ruby is working her mind control on Fox executives even as we speak (or I write and you read), so there may well be a sequel down the line. That said, this is hugely derivative on virtually every level. That said, if you are a fan of this film, Fox has provided a 4K UHD release that offers noticeable if typically slight at times upgrades in both the video and audio presentations.