The Maze Runner: Movie Review

Hello Dreamers,

So... Before we get started, I just want to let you guys know that I really had no intentions of seeing this movie. Like... at all. I mean. Look at it. A Hunger Games/Divergent spawn (two stories which I'm somewhat at odds with anyway...). Yet another story trying to take advantage of the dystopian fad. Those of you who know me, know that I don't do fads. However, upon hearing that a certain actor was in it (keep reading) I figured that, given enough popcorn, I would be able to handle it.

Summary:

One of the problems with this movie, is that I watched the whole thing, gave it the benefit of the doubt and still don't really understand what was going on. But... *sigh* I'll do my best. It starts with a teenage boy (our main character) waking up inside a freaky cage-elevator type thing with no idea who he is or why he's there etc. The cage-elevator takes him up through a dark shaft and opens into an area that pretty much looks like it's out in the middle of nowhere. He's welcomed into a group of teenage boys who call themselves the Gladers who (after a bit) explain the situation. The Gladers are living in the center of a maze. The cage-elevator comes up every month with a new boy to add to the group and supplies for them to live off of. Non of the boys remember anything about themselves except their names (these return to their memories after a day or two). All of the boys work together to be able to survive. A handful of them are called Runners; it's their job to map out the maze in the hopes of finding the way out. Essentially, our main character (who eventually remembers his name is Thomas) is too ADHD to sit around and wait to die while the Runners map out the maze (death becomes a factor in his mind as he eventually realizes the many dangers inside the maze). So he starts running out into the maze himself looking for the way out. (of course everything is much more complicated than that, but... spoilers)

Acting:

I told you that I watched this movie for a specific actor so, let's discuss that first.

Will Poulter. Poulter was absolutely fantastic in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and is seriously my favorite part about that entire film. If you haven't seen it, Voyage was my least favorite out of all of the Narnia movies, but Poulter's portrayal of Eustace's deep character changes was just plain awesome.

I went into Maze Runner with the hope that Poulter would again make the movie worth more than it would've been without his amazing performance. However, I felt like Poulter's character (Gally) was given very little time to develop and remained very flat for the whole film. I don't feel like this is on Poulter, I feel like this goes to the writer's fault along with all the other story telling problems that are in this movie. So... boo. I would've loved to see him blow my mind again.

(BTW, his voice is like so different now.... I like... had a fangirl attack. )

Anyway, Dylan O'Brien played the main character, Thomas (Not to be confused with the lad with the Poseidon tattoo on his arm on his left... that's Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman)). And I know you guys aren't going to believe this, but I really wish Thomas had been played by Logan Lerman. *terrified scream* I know. I don't know what is wrong with me. Actually, I do. And here it is. Watching Dylan O'Brien play Thomas was like watching a movie that wanted to get Logan Lerman but didn't have the ability to do so and had to settle for something extremely like him. I seriously have no idea what it is about this actor, but his mannerisms or something reminded so much of Logan Lerman that I am having trouble remembering his face different from Lerman's. And please don't fall under the assumption that I'm just a fan girl who's obsessed with Logan Lerman. I'm not a fan of his.

Overall the acting felt a bit fake... and random. But I think that may have just been that the script felt super forced. Like the writer know that certain information needed to get to the viewers and so they just threw it all out there - real people don't talk like that.

Overall Quality:

The Maze Runner was the beginning to what I'm sure the filmmakers are hoping is going to be a trilogy. However, as far as first films in trilogies go, this one was done really sloppily. Out of all of the issues I've discussed in regards to The Hunger Games, a movie whose sole purpose was to hook viewers into watching the next movies wasn't one of them. I think that a movie that ends with a few questions unanswered is good when two more movies are expected to follow it. However, The Maze Runner left a LOT of questions. In fact, a very limited number of questions were answered at all. (Like... I could count them on one hand.) This is somewhat due to the fact that the film ended with a twist so uprooting that everything you thought to be true during the movie sorta isn't. I felt slightly miffed and seriously confused at the end. The end of a story is the most important and deep part. And while this wasn't supposed to be the end of the series, it was still supposed to be a little baby end that left you content to wait for another year while they make the second movie. In short, The Maze Runner didn't do that.

Content Advisory:
There's a bit of violence as is to be expected in a PG-13 distopia and like all the movies in our recent distopia fad, it all involves teens.

Thankfully there's no boy/girl relationshipy problems because there's only one girl character and... she's hardly focused on at all.

The Rant Bit:

Now, perhaps you will find this odd (and you can all tell me I'm going to be horribly disappointed) but all that The Maze Runner did for me was make me want to read the book. Now before you worry about my sanity, I don't have much hope for the books, but there is something about this series that really makes me want to read it. I'll list a few reasons so you don't think I'm horribly insane.

• The Maze Runner series was written by a guy and historically, I like books written by men more often than books written by women (Don't know why that is, but it's true.)
• The Maze Runner is narrated by a boy. A refreshing difference from The Hunger Games and Divergent. A small and unimportant difference, but I'm appreciating what I can.
• The Maze Runner movie didn't irritate me with annoying teenage romance. In fact I'm still holding out that the non focused on girl character turns out to be Thomas' sister (eh... I know it's a long shot but... who's with me?)
• The Maze Runner movies had a certain atmosphere that reminded me of Peter Pan's Lost Boys and a little bit of Lord of the Flies.
• There are FINALLY no factions involved! (Thus far... still got my fingers crossed)
• I want to see the actual (and hopefully deeper) development of Gally's character.
• James Dashner (the author) has an awesome website.
• Dashner has written a lot of books and... well I like to like things. Liking things is so much more pleasant than disliking them.

So yes. I think you may expect a review on this series in the near future.

2 Fandom Points - Dang... if this movie is already this low, what will happen to it if I like the books and realize the movies destroyed them? It'll be Percy Jackson all over again...

~ Aloisa Quintal

Gally: "We've got to stop meeting like this, Greenie."