Much like the books which the film is based upon, Wes Ball’s adaptation of The Maze Runner attempts to unwind an ambitious idea into a blockbuster entertaining enough to put itself forth as the next The Hunger Games. While it isn’t near enough as clever or impressive as it’s immediate comparison, the film places itself as a worthy entry in the increasingly common Young Adult/Post-Apocalyptic genre.
Drawing upon a The Lords of the Flies feel, we get a mysteriously bound group of young adults who are thrown together in an expansive land referred to as the “Glade”. An appropriate opening introduces us to the bemusing process by which kids join this community, with the film following lead character Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) as he finds himself waking up in a strange elevator which lifts him up into the Glade. After a cliche ‘new kid on the block’ treatment from those who have been in the community longer, Thomas – along with the audience – starts to have pieces of the puzzle flung at him from all sides of the rag-tag community. The exposition is heavy in this film, obviously aimed at a younger audience.
The Glade is characterised by half jungle, half massive concrete maze and set designers have done a superb job at making every aspect of this world look and feel like something you’ll actually want to explore a bit more. The danger and mystery surrounding the dark and gloomy maze is hyped up throughout most of the movie, furthered by sounds coming from the middle of the maze to give a very pilot-episode-of-Lost vibe. Unfortunately, the movie’s middle drags on too much for the intriguing bookends to leave much of an impact.
Mechanical spiders, which would have been terrifying had they been more organic, saunter around the maze and seemingly kill these kids. Thomas is the only one brave enough to actually confront one, bringing the community closer to solving the mystery of the maze but also putting them all in harms way. It’s here that inner-group tension drives most of the movie, while we leave the maze as soon as it starts to become mildly exciting and drag our feet back in the forest with social-political tropes.
Performances are competent enough for such young actors, as we see a few familiar faces from TV; Skin’s Kaya Scodelario (who plays the only female member of the community, Teresa) and Game of Thrones star Thomas Brodie-Sangster are the most recognisable here while they are relegated to the back of the pack and play supporting good guys to our curious protagonist Thomas.
Common Young Adult/Apocalyptic aspects like left-field names, goofy terminology, jealousy, and destiny rear their sleepy heads often throughout this first installment of what is likely to be a trilogy. Like Divergent earlier this year, The Maze Runner’s biggest problem seems to be in striking a balance between exposition and progress. The first half of the movie is practically just an induction day for cast and viewers alike, as Thomas gets to know his new contrived family and gets used to living life in the Glade. The occasional horn blow to signal danger doesn’t really count as action, and once we do get our small bunch of thrills, we’re sucked back into the less interesting side of the plot.
While interest in the continuation in this story is definitely lingering beyond the credits, the attempt at giving us a unique entry into this now overcrowded genre of trilogy films is only slightly above average, at best.
Review Score: THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Running Time: 113 minutes
The Maze Runner is currently screening in cinemas across the country
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