5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
After a disease kills 98% of America's children, the surviving 2% develop superpowers and are placed in internment camps. A 16-year-old girl escapes her camp and joins a group of other teens on the run from the government.
Starring: Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie, Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Wallace LanghamSci-Fi | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
Hindi: Dolby Digital 5.1
Urdu: Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
Turkish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
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 presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Once again the IMDb doesn't offer a ton of technical data on the shoot, but I found some online data suggesting Arri cameras digitally captured the imagery, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI (as always with my reviews, if anyone has authoritative information to the contrary, message me, and I'll happily update the review). This is a crisp and appealing looking presentation, though it's often as derivative looking as some of its plot elements feel. Kind of interestingly (and commendably in my not so humble opinion), this is one YA adventure outing that has not been continually graded toward either blue or yellow, and as such the palette is rather warm and natural looking a lot of the time, especially in some of the actually rather lustrous looking outdoor locations. Depth of field in these moments is typically excellent, and even with a predilection toward shooting into light sources, with effulgent glows surround characters, detail levels remain surprisingly strong throughout. Fine detail on elements like the braided sweater Ruby wears in the film or even the striations on gun barrels is typically excellent. A few nighttime scenes don't offer a wealth of shadow detail, and some of the CGI is actually kind of surprisingly cheesy looking, but on the whole this is a sharp and well detailed presentation that should satisfy the film's fans.
The Darkest Minds features a well designed DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that delivers the goods, albeit once again in a pretty predictable manner. Big set pieces like a manic car chase that just appears out of nowhere fairly early in the film offer nicely placed effects throughout the side and rear channels, with some booming LFE to boot. Even "non effects" sequences like a big dance party at the refugee camp later in the film offer excellent surround activity. The glut of outdoor material also offers consistent opportunity for discrete channelization of ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.
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 Blu-ray release with excellent technical merits and some appealing supplements.
2009
1971
Theatrical & Unrated Cuts
1972
2019
2016
2019
2007
2015
2003
2018
2014
2018
Unrated Edition
2012
2017
Extended Director's Cut
2012
The Divergent Series
2016
2018
2008
1990
2011