100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 97: The Maze Runner

Director: Wes Ball

Genre: Action/ Science Fiction/ Thriller

Runtime: 114 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Dexter Darden, Kaya Scodelario, Chris Sheffield, Joe Adler, Alexander Flores, Jacob Latimore, Randall D. Cunningham, Patricia Clarkson, Don McManus, Michael Bow, Jerry Clark, Michael Deville, Dylan Gaspard

Description: Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "runners" for a shot at escape.

Review: Since the “Harry Potter” movies, the adaptations of the “Twilight” films and the movies of “The Hunger Games” series, the young adult films have become a new subgenre. Themes as friendship, love and the fight between good and bad are illustrated. I didn’t like the book that this movie, “The Maze Runner”, is based on. I was skeptical about it, but it was better than I thought it would be.

In the opening of the film, the audience is right in the middle of all the action. After a ride in a dark elevator, protagonist Thomas ends up in a strange place surrounded by walls. A group of boys his age are looking at him. Nobody knows why they are there. The walls they are surrounded by form a maze. A select group of boys, called runners, is allowed to enter that maze. Maybe they find clues or even a way out, but no one has found out anything important yet. And at night the search is even harder because of the grievers, robotic insect like creatures. Everything becomes even more complicated when another new victim arrives, the first girl.

“The Maze Runner” follows a different structure than most young adult films. Not just a story that goes from A to B. The maze adds a lot of mystery to it all and you feel involved in the puzzle the boys are trying to solve. The movie isn’t all that predictable.

The problem I have with the movie, that I also had with the book, are the characters. The story has no memorable characters, like for instance Harry Potter or Katniss Everdeen are. If you ask me to name five, I think I won’t manage.

“The Maze Runner” is better than I expected it to be. I didn’t like the book and didn’t want to read any of the sequels. I actually do want to see the second film.

Rating: 3/ 5