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As a prolific reviewer, you tend to often discuss a film in terms of traditional arcs, and riffs off those same arcs.

Which is why it is always a treat when a film comes along that throws the script template out the window and forges its own path.

This is such a film. It reminded me of THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN 1957, the first legitimate A-list sci-fi that, like this film, started off in what seemed a traditional manner -- and then went down a plot superhiway that no one had ever seen before.

It is not a perfect film. It has some flaws. For example, the first 30 minutes are better (more impact, more empathy, more entertaining) than the last 60 minutes. Which is not to suggest that the last hour is bad, merely that the first half-hour is drop-dead stunning and unforgettable.

And the director often seems confused about who the real star is? Ditto for the PR dept of the studio. If you check the IMDb reference, you will see that the young girl so brilliantly played by Sennia Nanua is given billing lower down on the cast list. That's an error. Sennia IS the film -- she practically picks it up and carries it to the finish line. The scenes without her are weak, the scenes with her are wonderful.

Nice iteration of a "really smart" zombie film. Recommended.

... from the U. K., directed by Colm McCarthy. After an alien fungus has decimated the Earth's population, transforming anyone not an infant into a mindless zombie-like creature with a taste for human flesh, a contingent of British soldiers and scientists are hard at work trying to find a cure. Their hope lies with a group of children, all of whom were infected as infants, and who have grown up without the usual zombie-like symptoms. They appear and act normally, but they still can be overcome by a taste for living flesh that turns them violently animalistic. When the base falls to overwhelming numbers of the infected, a small group consisting of the most accomplished girl from the ranks of the children (Sennia Nanua), a sympathetic teacher (Gemma Arterton), a gruff sergeant (Paddy Considine), a new recruit soldier (Fisayo Akinade), and the coldly calculating head scientist (Glenn Close) head into the ruins of London to search and rescue.

I'm always surprised when filmmakers can find something new to do with a zombie movie, and they've done it again here. Newcomer Nanua is terrific as the precocious infected girl who is happy to be in the outside world for the first time, little realizing the destruction all around her. Arterton, Considine and Close are all fine, as expected. I know most viewers are burned out on zombie flicks (and TV series), but this one is worth a look.

Let me say first that I am not a fan of zombie movies. Since George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", most have been derivative. There have been some better than others (so I've been told) but none that really stand out from the pack. I think, though, that "The Girl with All the GIfts" is one that does stand out in this genre. I read about it and decided to take a chance on it...I figured if I didn't like it that I would just fast forward it and be done with it in about 15 minutes. So I took it out from my local library. Well, I got hooked from the beginning. I would recommend that if you want an interesting, unexpectedly well done movie then give this movie a chance

I've read the book and also the second "the boy on the bridge" and only found later that it was made into a motion picture. Having enjoyed the books so much I was curious to see whether the movie followed the same storyine, character descriptions, etc...

Having read the story first I was a bit disappointed with the film. The film is still great but you won't get the whole story in a film. It would have been better done if it was released as 10 episodes or something.

I'm still giving 7 stars as it was still good to watch.

This movie is best going into with as little fore knowledge as possible, because when someone tells you the genre of this movie, your preconceptions will almost certainly skew your expectations and experience.

This is not a typical movie in its genre. It's a lot smarter and more thought provoking. While there are thrills, and lots of suspense, it's done in a much better way that is of service to the characters and the story, creating a slow build of dread rather than cheap jump scares.

A very good movie with excellent acting and casting. Sennia Nanua, who plays Melanie also did a phenomenal job, Gemma Arterton was solid as the protective and caring teacher Helen Justineau. Glenn Close was also good as the Doctor prepared to do almost anything to find a cure for the disease.

The whole cast did a very good job and the music complimented rather than overpowered the movie.

Worth seeing and I have watched it more than once.

Excellent performances and interesting source material (MR Carey adapting his own novel), plus imaginative direction (Scottish director Colm McCarthy), create a chilling sci-fi tale of hungries (zombies) versus humanity.

The opening sequence sets the tone. Melanie, a young, polite, and courteous girl manacles herself into a wheel chair. She seems entirely innocent and harmless, yet her captors fear otherwise. She and other children, each similarly restrained, are given an armed escort to a classroom. It's an arresting start and it grabs our attention. Sennia Nanua plays Melanie and the story revolves around her. We watch society collapsing through her eyes, see her threatened by the human beings around her, and fear for her. We watch her do terrible things, and yet we root for her. Everything is uncertain. Nothing is as it seems. It's a brilliant performance from a new talent, and it serves the film perfectly.

Melanie is surrounded by contrasting emotions from those nearest to her. Gemma Arterton is excellent as protective and caring psychologist/teacher Helen Justineau, fiercely defending Melanie against the machinations of Dr Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close) who sees Melanie as a specimen to be dissected. Paddy Considine convinces as Sergeant Eddie Parks, a tough, no- nonsense soldier fighting a losing battle.

Colm McCarthy brings this all together superbly, belying the film's modest budget. Striking visuals and frenetic action are never allowed to overwhelm the characters, who take centre stage. And at it's heart is Melanie. Confusing, ambivalent, terrifying, lovable Melanie. It's a wonderful turn from Sennia Nanua.

Highly recommended, and vastly superior to most of the genre.

Before The Waking Dead came along, people thought the zombie subgenre was dead in the water. The zombie films for the most part just weren't able to capture the right tone and essence. So even though there's been a million of them and most of them are much of the same thing, I always appreciate the ones that bring something new and fresh to the genre. The Girl With All the Gifts does just that.

The British post-apocalyptic film takes place after most of the world has been decimated to due to an unknown fungal disease, with only a few military bases left. The twist here is that on this military base is a group of second generation children who are infected with the disease but are under control of their senses for the most part. That is, when they aren't smelling human flesh.

After several life threatening sequences, a few soldiers, a teacher, and one of those second generation children (named Melanie) embark on a trek to get to the next safe zone, with their base being overrun by zombies (or hungries as they call them). Melanie, a seemingly more intelligent and aware child, forms a special bond with the teacher, named Helen Justineau and played by Gemma Arterton. This is the one human connection that I think is worth caring about. Since you don't get much backstory on the soldiers, including one played well by Paddy Considine, you are almost forced into caring for the two. And that's the one thing I was constantly hoping we would get more of, character depth and backstory. It just becomes difficult to figure out who you're going to root for when you don't have much in way of their backstory to think about.

With that said, I appreciated that this film involved a different approach to the zombie genre. Yes, there is the subplot involving someone looking for a cure (which is always something that comes up) but the more calculated approach to the pacing, and reserved display of gore, The Girl With All the Gifts feels like a fresh entry into the genre. Heck, have we ever had our lead character be an second generation infected child? Just by those standards this was something original.

7.1/10

I had been warmly recommended that I watch "The Girl with All the Gifts" given my love for the zombie genre, and it was a movie that had somewhat managed to fly under my radar, for some reason.

So I took the advice to heart and sat down to watch the movie. And I will say that the movie does start out quite alright, especially because the audience is sort of kept in the dark as director Colm McCarthy slowly and steadily builds up the story. And that uncertainty and only speculating at what is going on really helps to add drama to the movie.

Then the movie takes a turn into a zombie movie with the outbreak and overrunning of the military compound. And this is where the movie really picked up pace for me and where it was the most interesting.

However, it all came crashing down so hard, so very, very hard. And it came at the point where the children from "Beyond Thunderdome" made an appearance. That was just idiotic and such a poor turn of events to the story. And that totally left the movie in shattered pieces, and it never recovered from that blow. From that point on and to the end of the movie, it was just a slippery downhill slope that the movie had no chance of getting back up from.

Now, for a zombie movie, then "The Girl with All the Gifts" was sort of testing the waters with new ideas, and for most parts it did manage to prove potential and would have pulled it off, except that the movie took a critical hit and never recovered from it.

The special effects were good, and they did carry the movie a good long way. That is a given for a zombie movie, because special effects and whether or not they are believable or impressive is a make or break thing for the zombie genre, as it is less forgiving than most other genres.

"The Girl with All the Gifts" started out with lots of potential and was fast on the climb, but then it was all too soon and too tragically cut short by some laughable and idiotic turn of events and ill-thought ideas that were brought to the script. I can only imagine that they were concocted through some fever-stricken haze.

And the end of the movie, well I will not even comment on that. It was just so idiotic that it doesn't even deserve the time or effort.

This 2016 movie ends up with a barely mediocre rating in my opinion, narrowly managing to climb up to a, and I am being more than generous here, 5 out of 10 star rating.

I'm really aggravated by people who think this was a "boring zombie movie" that "wasn't scary." Look... the movie is called THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS. It's a movie about a girl... who happens to be a zombie... and her desire to come to terms with who she is, and her right to live in spite of it. NO it's not full of scares and gory zombie kills... that's not what it's about. If you can appreciate a good story about a little girl who happens to be a zombie then you'll see the beauty in this film. There still GREAT zombie action though... It was very well done, had an excellent cast, and Sennia Nanua shined.

Full commentary WITH spoilers on YouTube/Twitter @moviebuffchick1

https://youtu.be/wwm1nWFOwBI

The opening scenes of The Girl with all the Gifts throw you if you know little about the film. Melanie (Sennia Nanua) is a young polite girl in a room that looks like a cell. In the morning she manacles herself into a wheel chair while armed soldiers push her to her classroom lessons along with other children in a similar state. Melanie remains unfailingly polite and we also realise she is clever.

Are these children gifted? Part of some experiment? Why are the soldiers armed and remain vigilant?

We soon find out when one soldier bursts in and rubs his arm with his spit. It looks like these children have cannibalistic tendencies, we already see Melanie given food which consisted of worms.

The film is a take on the Zombie movie, society has collapsed because of a fungal infection of the brain turning people into zombies and it is evolving. These children were rescued from a hospital as babies and raised by the army. Dr Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close) is the scientist who sees Melanie and others to be experimented so she can find a cure for this fungus.

Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton) is the teacher who wants to protect Melanie from the soldiers and Dr Caldwell. She seems to have bonded with Melanie and even Melanie shows a protective attitude towards her even when she needs to feed.

When the army base is in invaded by the zombies this three along with some soldiers escape and head for safety to another mobile unit. However it is clear society has broken down, the zombies are going through an evolution process and Dr Caldwell might be too late to develop a vaccine.

This is probably the most striking British zombie film since 28 Days Later. It is a low budget film shot mainly in and around the Midlands. Director Colm McCarthy makes an interesting opening to this film and best use of the small budget for some special effects shots. He keeps the story human, the development of the relationship between Melanie and Justineau. Dr Caldwell supplies the scientific explanations but the story dos slow down in parts over halfway through.

A wonderful central performance from Sennia Nanua who shows she is a talent to watch.

If you've read the book you'll find that the movie is, at heart, a completely different story. And I don't mean minor changes like reversing the races of Melanie and Miss Justineau. I mean deep, fundamental changes that alter the entire message of the story; changes that turn the hero into the villain and the villain into a pathetic tragic hero, and turn a story about hope coming in strange packages into something entirely different.

The book is--in spite of its setting and genre--a deep and thought-provoking look at what it really means to be human. The movie is not. It's just another zombie movie with a (not even too surprising, in the context of the movie) twist.

This movie wastes the abilities of a very talented group of actors. Melanie and Miss Justineau have a bit more depth than the other characters, but Seargent Parks--who is very deep and well-drawn in the book--is reduced to a cardboard-cutout of a soldier. Gallagher--also a multi-faceted character with his own moral message in the novel--becomes nothing more than a means of bringing us to the movie's climax which itself is wildly different than the book. Dr. Carter is humanized in ways totally at odds with the book, and in fact becomes the "hero" of the story, if you can call anyone a hero. And Melanie...well, in the end Melanie is cast as the villain, performing roughly the same actions as she did in the book but with totally different motivations.

All in all, it was a huge disappointment. I was willing to deal with many major plot cuts--I understand that movies simply cannot fit all the material of novel-length works into their time-frame. What I was not willing to accept was the complete reversal of the message of the book...which was this: Pandora opened the box containing all the ills of the world. But she didn't do it as vengeance or out of a feeling of moral superiority...she did it out of pure curiosity. And the result was horrific. She unleashed plague. She unleashed and pestilence and death and destruction. But...she also released hope.

This movie took a grand theme and turned it into a small, squalid cliché. If you loved the book, don't bother. (But do look for the cast, who did an amazing job with the little they had to work with--in other roles.)

Certainly not your typical cliched zombie flick, it pulls no punches, is well acted and tells a well paced story with a good premise. Thoughtful portrayal of humanity. A movie with well thought-out ideas and integrity. The first 20 minutes is absolutely compelling, the rest ... not exactly a feel-good movie, but unflinchingly remaining true to its foundational ideas. Strong characters, superb music and great potrayal of overgrown post-apocalypyse city.

Melanie is one of the children carefully restrained in a military bunker. They are feared by the soldiers guarding them such as Sgt. Eddie Parks (Paddy Considine). Their teacher Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton) is touched by Melanie. The kids are actually experiments being conducted by Dr. Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close). The world has been devastated by a fungus which turns people into mindless killing zombies called Hungries.

The first twenty minutes start off great like an intriguing Twilight Zone episode. There is a point in the movie where an imaginative exposition is needed by Caldwell to explain the world and her experiment. I'm reminded of Hammond from Jurassic Park. When Caldwell brings in Melanie tied down on the gurney, it's the perfect spot where she could have done a presentation to a bunch of military brass. Instead, the audience has to piece this world together bit by bit. I do have problems with some of the pieces. They don't all fit together neatly. There is a final reveal that stretches the fit to its limit. There is a compelling battle for the humanity of Melanie between Miss Justineau and Caldwell but it needs some better writing. Despite the movie's shortcomings, it takes an interesting spin on the standard zombie genre.

"The Girl with All the Gifts" brings a fresh spin to the zombie genre with an intriguing premise and a unique central character. It starts strong, with a sense of mystery and tension that builds curiosity about this dystopian world and the girl at the center of it all.

There's no denying the film's ambition. It tries to be more thoughtful than your average infection-based thriller, and for a while, it works. The atmosphere is well-crafted, the tone is grim but grounded, and the story dares to explore ethical questions and human instincts.

However, the execution doesn't always match the concept. After an excellent opening act, the pacing becomes uneven, and some plot developments feel rushed or underdeveloped. While the performances-especially by the young lead-are solid, other elements, including dialogue and character choices, occasionally come off as flat or inconsistent.

By the end, "The Girl with All the Gifts" feels like a film that could have been something truly special but ends up just above average. It deserves credit for originality, but ultimately doesn't deliver a fully satisfying payoff.

I read the book first, and it's excellent. But movie adapted from that book is a total mess. If I hadn't read the book, the movie would have seem jumpy and confused.

Don't think even 1% of the book's brilliance was shown in the movie.

In the book, characters are gradually developed and events move in logical connection. It'd have been difficult for even a 2 hours movie and this long book of around 600 pages would have been better serialised into 5 or 6 hours.

In this movie, viewer doesn't connect with any characters. Casting is terrible, and in addition nothing much else (story arc, special effects & editing) works either.

Hope there's a better adaptation in future. This movie is total waste of time.

Totally shocked by the number of high ratings and unrealistic reviews.

I don't really know what to write other than this is another zombie flesh eaters flick that's only mediocre. I don't get the other reviews that say it's so "brilliant".

I, myself, think it's slow moving and boring. There are no good special effects and it just seems low budget. It's not a bad movie, just not a very good one IMO. We have our own tastes so YMMV.

Also, the person who said this is the best movie since 28 days later... Makes me wonder what movie they were watching. This has nothing on that movie.

I gave this a 5/10. If you're bored and want to kill some time watching a movie of this genera, then by all means go for it. It's worth a watch, but IMO it's nothing special at all.