Maximum Ride (2016)

Six children, genetically cross-bred with avian DNA, complete with wings, take flight around the country to discover their origins while on the run from a secret Government agency.


REVIEW: I was never a big fan of the Maximum Ride book series by James Patterson. I liked the story it told well enough but the writing was atrocious, thus I never continued on past the first book, so I'm in no way a fan of this property. With that said, since I did enjoy the story I was pretty excited to check out the movie when it premiered on Video on Demand services earlier this year.

Good lord, this is one bad movie. The acting from pretty much everyone is painfully bad (Allie Marie Evans as the main character Max is half-decent and shows promise but everyone else - youch), however I can't really fault the young actors too much because the scripted dialog that they're given to work with is horribly awkward and just all-around abysmal. Even seasoned actors would have trouble making that crap be convincing. In addition, the CGI effects for their mutant bird wings, and by extension the scenes that involve them flying, are embarrassing to watch due to just how horrible they are. Honestly, I'm glad I'm not a fan of this property because I'd be PISSED if this was the treatment that something I loved over the course of nine novels spanning however many years ended up getting.

It's not surprising though to see this is how it all turned out when you look at the history of director Jay Martin. As in, there is no history. This is essentially one of his first projects (only one other movie under his belt, which was two years ago), and as to why they would entrust a beloved-by-many young adult/teen sci-fi novel series to a brand new first-timer is way beyond me, but unfortunately it shows, and is nothing but a slap in the face to those who wanted something more from an adaptation of the book series.

There are a few positives though, however slight. The musical score is actually pretty good and elevated some scenes of the movie up higher than they probably should have been considering all the negatives going on in them. And as mentioned above, lead actress Allie Marie Evans was pretty decent most of the time. Lastly, at a short 88 minutes (even less when you remove the end credits), there's really not much to this movie at all so it's over before you know it. Luckily it's not one of those 2 to 2.5 hours long teen novel adaptations, it's only short and moves at a brisk pace, so it won't take much time out of your day to watch and it won't be long until the horribleness is all over.

2/10 rooms in the Psych Ward