My Netflix Adventure: Maximum Ride

I was casually scrolling through Netflix the other day when I stumbled on a Maximum Ride movie. I vaguely remembered hearing about the movie a while ago, but hadn’t hear anything recently so I was curious. Max Ride was a big part of my middle school (I read seven of the many books) and the movie was only an hour and a half so I had to check it out. I wasn’t expecting anything from the movie, and I guess I wasn’t disappointed… but I wasn’t impressed either.

As a previous fan of the books, Max Ride brought to light many of the issues with the book series. I have to wonder what James Patterson was thinking when he decided to call the secret experiment lab “the school” and the evil monsters “Erasers”. Neither of those are particularly threatening names for villainous characters and places.

Fang failed to live up to his name in the movie. If one’s name is Fang, I feel they need to be the most angst filled person ever, and movie Fang was actually a pretty cool, levelheaded guy— I liked him. I really liked to see the dynamic of Fang and Max being the parental figures of The Flock. It was a detail from the books that I had forgotten about and think is kind of adorable. Max was a pretty good character, although a little reckless. She genuinely cared for the rest of the flock, but I wish she thought through her actions more. Most other characters were just kind of there and I have no strong feelings on them. Iggy seemed like a cool dude but I didn’t care for Gazzy, Nudge, or Angel.

The plot was really lacking, which is mostly the book’s fault, but more should’ve been added to the movie to give it more depth. On the other hand, I do realize these creators were probably working on a limited budget and had to make do with what they could. The plot completely consists of The Flock trying to find Angel who was taken by Erasers to The School. I wish there was more to it, but that is about it.

As one might expect, Max Ride is effects heavy. I’ll give credit to the creators because they do keep the wings hidden for a good bit of the movie, probably because they took lots of time and money to animate. When the wings were on screen, they did not look great… at all. At many times, things got laughable, which wasn’t all bad because it brought enjoyment to a lacking plot.

Overall, Maximum Ride was not too great. It was neat to see a book I read as a kid in movie form, and adapted very faithfully. I can tell the people who created this movie were fans of the book, and truly cared to make a good adaptation. I recommend Max Ride, exclusively to fans of the books. If you aren’t a fan of the books, you’ll probably find it a waste of an hour and a half, but fans of the books can appreciate the adaptation for its similarity to the book.

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Elise