Review of Rim of the World

By Dave B. 

​In Rim of the World (Netflix), four of the kids at the Rim of the World Adventure Camp get separated from their group when an alien invasion occurs. The campers encounter a downed space capsule whose sole passenger gives them a literal key that may be the figurative key to saving humankind. If the kids can get it the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is over 80 miles away through both interstellar and homegrown dangers.

​Rim of the World starts off decently. It’s relatively charismatic cast of kids combines with a slightly off-color sense of humor to give audiences an unexpectedly energetic and hilarious first 30 or so minutes. However, Rim of the World is a 99 minute movie and it’s clear that after the initial third of the movie,  someone not so gently reminded the writers that it’s supposed to be a heartwarming, coming-of-age film for children, not a humorous, genre-stretching, sci-fi/disaster movie for adults.  

At that point, Rim of the World becomes a predictable, sappy, bore. The plot plods, the kids’ charisma is stifled in service to the mundane story, and any potential that the movie had is wasted. And that’s a shame because this movie could have been good. McG can often be hit-and-miss as a director (his movie The Babysitter is a perfect example of what I mean), but I can’t fault him for Rim of the World’s failures. The directorial choices, cinematography, and acting are mostly fine. It’s just the plot that disappoints. 

​Rim of the World has the distinction of having the largest drop in quality of any movie that I’ve watched in 2019. That’s  worse than if it had been bad from the beginning because my initially low expectations were quickly raised and then just as quickly crushed, which is annoying, to say the least. And that’s the main reason that I’m not recommending Rim of the World: I can forgive a movie for being consistently mediocre and I’m capable of seeing the silver lining in a film that is straight bad, but I’ll be damned if I’m ever going to tolerate a movie that lifts my hopes and expectations and then tosses them out of the window for no good reason. 

Rating: 5/10