Image courtesy of emaze.com
Warning: Mild spoilers ahead.
I watched The Maze Runner on TV last night. For those who are unfamiliar, here is the plot:
A young man named Thomas wakes up with no memory of who he is. He has been sent to the Glade, a place that is basically a small society made up of other young men, which is surrounded by walls. It turns out the walls actually are part of a maze, and the others have built their society while trying to find a way out and discover why they were put there.
Here are my thoughts:
What Worked: I found more positives than negatives with The Maze Runner. Since the performances are a key aspect of any movie, the first question to answer is whether or not they work. In this case, yes they do. The actors show they can convey what the characters are feeling at certain points. The setting also works because it looks like something that could exist rather than a backdrop on a green screen. The editing is effective overall.
There are two things I especially enjoyed here. The first is the effects, specifically the design of the maze itself and the creatures inside. They looked very practical to me. The second is one thing that I love in movies: it sets rules. Whenever a movie decides to do that, I am always interested to see how the characters deal with the limitations placed upon them. I appreciate the decision to set rules even more if they are followed the entire time. However, I am fine with them being broken at any point, provided the way in which they're broken is clever. In this movie, more rules are broken than followed, but they are broken in clever ways and for good reason, yet there are still consequences. Finally, there are so many twists and turns that by the end, you want to learn more.
What Didn't Work: My main issue was that some of the characters' decisions may not make sense. There are two things I can especially understand being major issues for those who are themselves interested. The first thing is that in the first few minutes, key parts are being set up left and right with no room to think about the information you have just been given. The second thing is that a certain part of the last 20 minutes, which is briefly addressed in the ending, may leave them confused. However, while I will not spoil it here, those particular viewers will understand what I am referring to when they watch the movie for themselves.
Before I get into my overall thoughts, there is something to address. Unless they know it's a different story prior to watching it, people are likely going to end up comparing The Maze Runner to The Hunger Games (an example being they are both based on a popular series of young-adult novels). I recognize that some similarities are there, but it's how each movie presents those parts that show the differences. A prime example of this is the bigger picture: with The Hunger Games, it was rebellion against the system. With The Maze Runner, it might actually be more intriguing, as it feels like a mystery with a conspiracy.
Overall: The Maze Runner was actually a surprise for me when I first saw it in theaters, and since then (especially after seeing it again last night), I can say this: out of all of the young-adult novel adaptations out there, this, like The Hunger Games, is one of the better ones. It's a very fun movie that also is great at world-building. You want to know what's beyond the maze, which is one of a few questions both asked and answered here, with many more to be answered later.