By: Robert Murphy
Heading off to the movies this past week I was excited to find out more about one movie in particular and that was The Maze Runner. This movie adaptation to best selling book by James Dashner plays out like something from The Lord of the Flies where a group of young boys have found themselves lost in the middle of a giant maze with no memory of what had happened to them before. Having not read the book I wasn't quite sure whether it hits the nail on the head but I can say that about most of the movie adaptations to come out over the past few years. Never the less I took a swing at the movie and here is what I have to say.
As I said the movie follows a group of young boys who are mostly in there late teen years and they have all found themselves trapped, surrounded on all four sides by walls and an ever changing maze beyond them. Things seem to be going along well for them all given the circumstances but this all changes when Thomas (Dylan O'Brian) appears with a shipment of supplies through an elevator coming out of the ground. This sounds stranger than it is but this is how all of these boys arrived here, month after month, a new boy and supplies would come from this strange underground elevator. Rather than question this though the boys are really more concerned with trying to survive day by day, that is until Thomas arrives. For some reason Thomas just can't let things be and as soon as he arrives everything changes and his curiosity may be a bit of a double edged sword.
I did find it a bit strange during the film at the reason behind why none of the boys have found their way out of the maze quite yet and when the big reveal is their lack of curiosity, I almost fell over in disbelief. The fact that none of the other boys before Thomas made any strives over the many years they'd been there to do some of the things he does just doesn't seem likely and of all things that there was only one boy smart enough to do them. The other side of the mystery as well though seemed to be a little bit off as boy after boy came from the unknown elevator. Later on it is revealed that humanity has done this in a last drastic attempt to save the world. It seems testing young children like this comes up often like this when the world is on the line but in The Maze Runner, I'm not quite sure what that reason would be even by the end of the movie.
The giant maze itself is an interesting feature, it is ever changing in a unique pattern but after time the boys have figured most of it out. This again brings to me the question how no one else but Thomas couldn't put this obvious puzzle together. Supposedly fear is what defines these boys as the maze is home to some fearsome creatures that are referred to as Grievers. These horrifying creatures are a mix of an organism and machinery and posses a dangerous poison that has killed off a few of the boys before Thomas arrived. This also brings up the question of why whoever is doing this would be so extreme to these children and if they have the ability to make these freakish creatures then what is it all really for.
In the end I think that The Maze Runner leaves a lot of questions that I would like to see answered. It's not that I have found fault with the ideas that are presented but obviously there is plenty more story yet to be told by the end of the film. The whole thing was honestly intriguing enough for me to want to see the next part of the series and hopefully the final third movie to come after but I just wish there were far more going on right now. Every one of the boys though are spot on actors and I deeply enjoyed their performances, Will Poulter (Meet the Millers) as Gally and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones) as Newt being among my favorites.
I did find it a bit strange during the film at the reason behind why none of the boys have found their way out of the maze quite yet and when the big reveal is their lack of curiosity, I almost fell over in disbelief. The fact that none of the other boys before Thomas made any strives over the many years they'd been there to do some of the things he does just doesn't seem likely and of all things that there was only one boy smart enough to do them. The other side of the mystery as well though seemed to be a little bit off as boy after boy came from the unknown elevator. Later on it is revealed that humanity has done this in a last drastic attempt to save the world. It seems testing young children like this comes up often like this when the world is on the line but in The Maze Runner, I'm not quite sure what that reason would be even by the end of the movie.
The giant maze itself is an interesting feature, it is ever changing in a unique pattern but after time the boys have figured most of it out. This again brings to me the question how no one else but Thomas couldn't put this obvious puzzle together. Supposedly fear is what defines these boys as the maze is home to some fearsome creatures that are referred to as Grievers. These horrifying creatures are a mix of an organism and machinery and posses a dangerous poison that has killed off a few of the boys before Thomas arrived. This also brings up the question of why whoever is doing this would be so extreme to these children and if they have the ability to make these freakish creatures then what is it all really for.
In the end I think that The Maze Runner leaves a lot of questions that I would like to see answered. It's not that I have found fault with the ideas that are presented but obviously there is plenty more story yet to be told by the end of the film. The whole thing was honestly intriguing enough for me to want to see the next part of the series and hopefully the final third movie to come after but I just wish there were far more going on right now. Every one of the boys though are spot on actors and I deeply enjoyed their performances, Will Poulter (Meet the Millers) as Gally and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones) as Newt being among my favorites.
Good:
- Intriguing story that got me wrapped up in the who, what and why of it all
- Some great performances from all the boys, well known and not so well known to myself
- I'm ready for the next part already
Bad:
- A little bit more going on in this first part would have been nice
- Not really certain that if humanity can make a giant maze and robotic creatures that they need to be doing this sort of thing to kids
- The fact that years have gone by and only one kid was smart enough to figure out these puzzles seemed unlikely to me
Scully Rating: 6.0 out of 10
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