The Maze Runner
Directed by: Wes Ball
Written by: Noah Oppenheim and Grant Pierce Myers and T.S. Nowlin - Based on the novel by James Dashner
Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, Patricia Clarkson, Blake Cooper, Dexter Darden, Jacob Latimore, Chris Sheffield, Joe Adler, Randall D. Cunningham, Alexander Flores, Don McManus
Action/Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 113 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 17 Sept 2014
Written by: Noah Oppenheim and Grant Pierce Myers and T.S. Nowlin - Based on the novel by James Dashner
Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, Patricia Clarkson, Blake Cooper, Dexter Darden, Jacob Latimore, Chris Sheffield, Joe Adler, Randall D. Cunningham, Alexander Flores, Don McManus
Action/Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 113 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 17 Sept 2014
The Maze Runner is the latest installment of the young adult dystopian epidemics to land in theaters. It’s most distinguishing characteristic separating it from the pack is it follows a gaggle of male adolescents instead of a strong female lead. These amnesiac lost boys must play a far deadlier game than the Divergent kids but do not have it quite as bad as Katniss in The Hunger Games. Jonas from The Giver has it made in heaven compared to all these folks. Why a random bunch of hormonal teenagers must survive together as a Lord of the Flies knockoff is the film’s central mystery and the shape-shifting, lethal maze is the obstacle they must navigate to solve it. It appears as steadfast as any religious dogma that adolescent dystopian thrillers must arrive piecemeal in trilogies. The Maze Runner is an effective opening installment at times, particularly in the eponymous rat trap, but the over-arching mysteries, deceptions, and half-truths are too far-fetched and shallow for the audience to care about; these lost boys are not as intriguing as most of their female peers.
Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is the newest ‘greenie’ in the glade. None of the boys remember who they were prior to arrival and the veterans quickly school them in the rules: do your share of the work, don’t hurt anyone, and stay out of the maze. The glade is the tedious safe zone we stay in for far too long before venturing out into much more engrossing maze. Its walls are as tall as mini-skyscrapers, they turn and move so mapping it is useless, and it houses monsters known as ‘grievers’ who keep the maze’s fatality rate at a higher level than the boys would like.
Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is the newest ‘greenie’ in the glade. None of the boys remember who they were prior to arrival and the veterans quickly school them in the rules: do your share of the work, don’t hurt anyone, and stay out of the maze. The glade is the tedious safe zone we stay in for far too long before venturing out into much more engrossing maze. Its walls are as tall as mini-skyscrapers, they turn and move so mapping it is useless, and it houses monsters known as ‘grievers’ who keep the maze’s fatality rate at a higher level than the boys would like.
The boys range in age from Chuck (Blake Cooper) who looks around 12 to the lord of the lost boys, Alby (Aml Ameen), who looks around 20. Alby is an effective leader of what looks like 30 or so boys but Thomas’s arrival is the catalyst for their little Eden amidst the chaos to start changing. Thomas is not content to farm the rest of his life and not know why or how he ended up in the maze. One contingent of boys, led by Gally (Will Poulter, the kid from We’re the Millers), is just fine with the day-to-day routine and not making any waves. They view meddlesome Thomas as a threat to peace and stability and to make matters even more unacceptable, a girl, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), shows up too.
Thomas subscribes to the Shawshank Redemption philosophy, get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’. He is in the maze as much as possible trying to ferret a way out. When I say as much as possible, do not imagine director Wes Ball takes his time and lets us explore the maze with Thomas. Most of our time is spent in the glade. We get a few juicy sequences running around corners and dodging monsters, but those are few and far between before we have to go back in for dinner. Ball is stuck directing an adapted screenplay and does not have too much room to maneuver away from the source material, but that should not be the reason to lock the audience away in prison as well with the good stuff just beyond the maze wall.
The actors playing the teenagers look suspiciously well into their 20s to be playing kids who should still be figuring out puberty. The majority of them are interchangeable minus the ones who actually have speaking roles. There is also a noticeable diversity balance. Alby is black, one of the main characters is Asian, there is the British kid, and the fat kid. Well, a chunk of the cast is British but only one of them gets to keep his accent.
There is less philosophy at work in The Maze Runner than in The Giver or Divergent but not as much effective action as in The Hunger Games. The story as a whole lacks depth and the blindsiding revelations and cliffhanger setups are more irritating than suspenseful. This is Wes Ball’s first feature film and also the first adapted screenplay for the three writers it took to adapt story. I wonder if it will evolve like TV’s Prison Break where they keep devising ways to put the prison escape mastermind back in jail. Will they find another maze for our maze runner?
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