Trek episode , and a comic setpiece lifted straight from Scooby Doo . The film ’ s major saving grace is the debut of 12-year-old Sennia Nanua , who manages to upstage the likes of Considine , Close and Arterton with arguably the most impactful child performance since Natalie Portman arrived on screen in Luc Besson ’ s Leon two decades ago . It ’ s a role that asks
Nanua to run the acting gamut , requiring her to switch from adorable to terrifying , sometimes in a matter of mere seconds , and she pulls it off with the ease of someone who has spent decades in front of the camera . Were it not for her precocious talents , The Girl with All the Gifts would be simply another shambling corpse in the crowded herd of the zombie genre .