Movie Review: The Maze Runner

In this day and age we, as a society, have become obsessed with the idea of a post-apocalyptic life. This has created an enormous output of post-apocalyptic young adult fiction titles. From I Am Legend to The Road, and from World War Z to The Hunger Games, these fiction titles have been transposed to film for the good of both movie fans and producers alike. The latest installment in this craze is The Maze Runner. The novel by James Dashner, on which the film is based, is the first book in a trilogy about a group of boys that live inside of a maze. Too vague?

The Maze Runner centers around Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), a young man without any memory, except for his name. He is thrown into the middle of “The Glade,” a society of only boys that exists in the center of a maze. Day in and day out, members of the society called “Runners” traverse the ever-changing labyrinth in hopes of discovering a way out.

Despite the inevitable love that the film will get from fans of the novel, O’Brien, and the genre in general, I didn’t see The Maze Runner as anything more than a mediocre representation of what, I assume, is a exceptional YA novel. The highlights of the film center mainly around the storyline. While I give a lot of credit to Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin, the writers of the screenplay, all love for the original story must go to novelist Dashner.

Aside from the phenomenally original plot, The Maze Runner tip-toes around the idea of having a solid ensemble cast. Many of the boys in the society were very good, young actors. The leaders of The Glade, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Alby (Aml Ameen) were both emotionally driven characters that held their own for the time that they were onscreen. Two other supporting characters, Chuck (Blake Cooper) and Minho (Ki Hong Lee) were given life and extraordinary amounts of purpose. In a cast largely comprised of twenty-somethings, the very young Cooper held his own and drew an enormous amount of emotion from the audience.

Aside from the solid performances, there were two surprising flops from some up-and-coming stars. Gally (Will Poulter) is an anti-progressive who was portrayed as the king of purposeless anger. Maybe I just can’t get past his role in last year’s We’re The Millers, but every negative line by Poulter had me struggling to believe that his character wasn’t going to subsequently get a wedgie from another one of a guys. The role just wasn’t for him. The lone, young female in the film is Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who could neither sustain an American accent, nor a consistent character.

It’s not necessarily her fault, as the extremely speedy pacing of the film had the actors skipping explanations and changing emotions almost scene-to-scene. The exposition of the film was rushed, and most of the story was told and not shown. While the nearly two-hour film seemed like it flew by in about forty minutes, there was still much of the plot that was left poorly-explained. I didn’t understand what being “stung” (an important element of the plot) was until well into the film. The rushed pacing caused for the days in The Glade to seemingly string together. That was until about an hour into the movie, when Gally mentions that it’s only been a mere three days since the start of the film. There is no consistent timetable to follow. Things occur and you don’t know when, why, or how.

Despite the rushed pacing, the production aspects of The Maze Runner were exemplary. The visual effects and editing in the eerie dream-sequences were a breath of fresh air, layering shots and holding a continuous color scheme throughout the entire dream. Shots of the maze were also quite extraordinary, although I don’t know why the VFX team didn’t do the same great job on the “grievers” as they did on the construction of the maze.

The sound engineering and production design of The Maze Runner also deserves applause. At the start of the film, you are always in The Glade. From the livestock to the moonshine, the functioning society of grimy boys is always a constant in the film. It is very realistic and plausible.

All in all, The Maze Runner is a film whose exceptional adapted screenplay helps to overcome the lapses in other areas. While I’ve always wanted to see a modern screen adaptation of Lord of the Flies, this film creates something that closely resembles what I’m looking for. The story contains as many twists and turns as the maze itself. In a world over-saturated with slightly glamorized YA post-apocalyptic films, The Maze Runner pulls no punches. Death is a reality in the film, and that keeps it grounded. I value realism in film, and The Maze Runner gave that to me.

Although it’s nothing all that new, The Maze Runner will undoubtedly feed on the love from teenage girls, fans of the novel, and everyone in between. Expect it to set a standard for realism in young adult films to come.