My Review of "The Girl With All The Gifts"

Everyday I'm learning about older movies that I've never heard of. The Girl With All The Gifts is another one of them. I was shocked that this movie had come out back in 2016 with very little fanfare.

This movie starts off with this little girl in a jail cell. She's in really high spirits and her name is Melanie, played by Sennia Nanua. It's kind of creepy how disciplined she is as well. She's sits herself into a chair and reminds the guards of his duties in strapping her to the chair. They have armed guards strapping her to chair as if she's dangerous. I'm already confused because she doesn't seem to be the type to be in jail.

They soon roll her out to this classroom with all of these other children. Everyone is strapped to their wheelchairs as if they're a menace. It's really weird because they all seem to be obedient children. Melanie in particular is a smart cookie. She has to be the girl with all the gifts. Soon the teacher Ms. Justineau, played by Gemma Arterton, comes to teach the class.

It's apparent right from the beginning that Ms. Justineau has a soft spot for Melanie. She feels sorry for all the children and wants to let them free but then one of the officers named Sgt. Parks, played by Paddy Considine, comes in and remind her how dangerous they are.

He shows Justineau and us the viewers what happens if they get too close the children. Just from the smell of his saliva one of the children starts behaving weird. The kid becomes some sort of zombie and then the rest of the class goes nuts just like the first kid. Everyone except for Melanie. At this point I think that Melanie is probably a reformed kid.

They strap Melanie to the chair instead of letting her sleep in her own bed and Justineau doesn't like it. So she goes in and tries to free her. Melanie tells her to get out because she knows she is starting to have zombie like tendencies.

This movie is a lot. It talks about a lot of moral situations. Does it serve a purpose to kill someone to help a few people when the whole world has pretty much been wiped out? That's one of the questions they ask because Melanie might have exactly what's needed to make regular humans immune to the disease that's causing everyone to become a zombie.

Then you have to ask is Melanie actually alive or dead? She's kind of a zombie already but she can think just like the rest of us. Some would even consider her an evolution to what us humans are because she's got advanced speed, sense of smell and strength.

It's an interesting take on the zombie apocalypse genre. The the acting in this movie was really well done. It's surprising too because there are a fair amount of children in this movie. They were freaky as the zombie kids.

There was a part in the movie that I thought was done pretty poorly. Melanie was to save Justineau from some military people and I was shocked that the military didn't go ahead and shoot Melanie. Instead it's as if they just waited for her to come and bite them. I don't know what they were thinking in that scene but it was totally unrealistic.

Still this is an okay zombie movie. There are times that this movie kind of drags. They take time in showing the viewer that there are more dimensions to Melanie that we think but they put a little too much emphasis on this exploration. In the process of telling us they can lose a few of the viewers.

Overall, this movie was a little bit slow but has some substance. It is an okay fun time but I wouldn't say it was revolutionary. I had an okay time watching it but did kind of nod off during some of the slow sequences. I have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. It's probably more for cerebral zombie movie lovers. I thought it was okay but I wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends.