Maximum Ride

The movie had very poor effects and the dialog was terrible. Many things were repeated with a few words switched around and the actors sounded very forced. But, that's not even the worst of it. The movie followed the book very poorly and the plot was not explicit. If I had not read the book prior to watching the film, I would have been completely lost. The plot moved too quickly and gave no details to what was happening. I had very high expectations set for this film because of the book. The book is an amazing action packed adventure with a great story that would make a perfect science fiction/action film. But that didn't happen. There were not nearly enough action scenes compared to the book, and the ones that were present were very, well, bad. The CGI was awful and the dramatic slow motion, cringe-worthy. I was disappointed and appalled, to say the least. The movie was made as if it was thrown together without any thought. One of my favorite aspects from the books, and what I was hoping to get a lot of in the film, was the character development. Max and her five "siblings" are very unique with different personality traits who battle many personal problems throughout the story. They all develop beautifully as characters, learning about themselves and their abilities, but sadly that was not present in the movie. The characters did not seem to learn anything important about sticking together, which was one of the biggest themes of the book. I will admit that the makers and the cast of this movie were not famous and may not have been experienced enough to make a hit film. The director was not someone that I recognized. Maybe Maximum Ride was a low budget film and they didn't have a lot to work with. There's a number of thing that could have been happening behind the scenes that may have caused this movie to be below what I had hoped for. The actors weren't even that bad. The portrayed their characters the way I would have seen them, but the lines and dialog that was fed to them was repetitive and somewhat cheesy. It was probably difficult to work with. Again, the idea for this movie was in the right place, and maybe if they would have had a bigger budget and put more thought into the script, this could have been a blockbuster film. I would have loved to see one of my favorite books become an astounding movie adaptation. But, sadly, we'll have to make do with what it is, and what it is is a poorly made movie, and frankly a waste of anyone's time, that doesn't even come close to the literature that it was based off of.

This film took me on a Maximum Ride of poor acting, writing and directing. Between the strange theme of sleeveless teenagers who have no explicit reason for acting the way they do and the unnatural and discomforting dialog between every single character, not only does this film steer extraordinarily far from the original content but as a standalone piece is an utter joke. I found myself laughing at how terrible every scene was and at the ridiculous way that the film progressed. In summary, I'd say this film is a great comedy.

The sole redeeming aspect of this film is the main actress, Allie Marie Evans. Beyond that this is very much a "pilot hoping to become a TV series" type movie with an inconclusive, boring ending. I won't say any more in order to avoid spoilers... but don't expect any kind of plot resolution or purpose to this flick other than "entertainment for kids".

Even Allie's presence and acting (which is limited by plot to pretty much a perpetual scowl) can't save this "yet another buncha teens with powers" flick. The plot's been done before (often), by better movies. Persecuted lab-raised teens vs the bad guy here. Do expect a lot of unanswered questions and plot holes (not the least of which is how their powers function). You likely won't really care about having those questions answered because... it doesn't really matter. Nothing more to see here.

It's worth watching on a rainy day with popcorn. It's not quite SyFy channel bad. It's just primarily Saturday Morning kids fare in movie form. There are far worse flicks, and far better. It's worth watching just for Allie's terrific eyes. Beyond that, kids might like it. But without a follow-up it's pointless-- and it's doubtful a follow-up would be followed.

I don't really want to trash this movie. When I saw the synopsis, I thought this was right up my alley: a sci-fi fantasy superhero action adventure with lots of girl power. It was a ride that I wanted to go on.

Now I'm on the ride, and it is giving me everything that the synopsis said it would give me, but it's not grabbing me like I would hope it would.

Another young adult book being adapted like Hunger games of Maze Runner, the movie is a about a group of kids that have been genetically altered with a series of test and now they have retractable wings (They barely used in the film). They escaped from their lab and now are in hiding, until one of them was found and kidnapped and now the rest have to save this child from the captives.

The movie does suffer from not having the same budget as the Divergent series, to name one, although I can't knock what they did with what they had. Not the most impressive production design, but it was effective.

I just felt that it did not gel or flow naturally at all. Maximum Ride force feeds the viewers a great story that's filled with cheesy dialog and corny acting. It was to the point that I almost felt I was watching a parody of a young adult book adaption, when I know that was not the intent of the production.

I don't want to be harsh on such a cool concept that was pretty well made from what looks like a shoe string budget in comparison, to others in its genre, but a lot of times it made me feel like I was trying my best to get through the book and finish, when sometime into it I became disinterested in doing so

My quick rating - 4,4/10. Pretty bland story that really never got going. Six children genetically cross-bred with avian DNA, complete with wings, take flight around the country to discover their origins. The plot line sums it up. Problem with this movie is some subpar FX, the lack of depth (flashbacks via MTV style don't cut it) and lack of any reason to care what happens to the kids. The action, so to speak, is pointless and they don't even try to find their origins, they more or less allude to it. Visually, the sweeping camera work looks very nice over the landscapes as they fly (don't focus on them, the vfx are horrid as I said) but that cannot save a lackluster effort such as this. I read that this is a series of books that supposedly are pretty good so I assume a sequel is on the way. I won't be bothering with it if they do. Aside from the main character, Max, the bit players are just there. The kid who blows stuff up at least ended the movie with a funny line. Not really a spoiler nor does it make it worth it to watch just for that. If you know the books, you will be disappointed, and if you don't know them, you most likely still will be. I know I was.