'The Maze Runner' review

The Maze Runner review:

A-Mazing Race

BY IAN TAN

The Maze Runner is the first entry in the film series based off James Dashner’s best-selling book trilogy of the same name. At this point in time, a book series-turned-film is a sure-fire box-office cash grab for Hollywood. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll be getting a good page-to-screen adaptation. While some of these adaptations succeed at pleasing fans as well as general audiences alike (Harry Potter & The Hunger Games films), some are an insult to both factions of viewers (The Twilight Saga). Then there’s the “meh” camp of these movies (this year’s Divergent). With that being said, where does The Maze Runner fit within these categories?

Surprisingly, The Maze Runner manages to be a very well made first entry in a potentially successful film quadrilogy (sigh, gone are the golden Trilogy days), ala The Hunger Games. Sure, it lacks the star-power of The Hunger Games, but new faces, as long as they’re good looking and have good acting chops, are always welcome. Just look at how far Marvel got using that strategy. Who would Tom Hiddleston be if it weren’t for Loki, or Chris Hemsworth if it weren’t for Thor?

Here, several familiar faces, namely Will Poulter (Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader & We’re The Millers) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones & Phineas and Ferb) really make a name for themselves and seal themselves as memorable talents we’d like to see in future films. Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf) takes on the lead role in this film as a bewildered Thomas who is unexpectedly brought to The Glade, a field of grass surrounded by an elaborate maze of gargantuan proportions. The habitants of The Glade have been trapped for over 3 years, with ‘Runners’ taking charge every day to work out the intricacies of the Maze in hopes of finding an escape route.

As previously mentioned, the acting talent involved here is pretty good and are likely to be newfound fan-favourites. Dylan O’Brien has a commanding presence as Thomas, striking a fine balance between dead-set bravery and inquisitive curiosity. Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s Newt is likely to be audiences’ favourite supporting character of the bunch, while Will Poulter channels a more mature version of the bratty Eustace Scrubb from Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader as the arrogant Gally in this film. The one that will most probably leave a mark on most audiences however is Lee Ki Hong, of Wongfu Productions fame, who plays the experienced Runner, Minho. Although there isn’t all that much depth given to his character in the film, he makes the most out of his scenes and proves to be a firm and likable action star, which is quite the departure from his She Has a Boyfriend and This Is How We Never Met days. Good news, girl moviegoers, you have now found your next Taylor Lautner, and he’s not a bad actor ;)

           
            Oh, and Kaya Scodelario’s character Teresa is rather wasted here, and seems like just an excuse to have a female player in the battlefield. The Teresa character really has no purpose in the story, and whatever elements she brings to further the story could have easily been given to Thomas. Hopefully she’ll have more to do in the sequels.

Story-wise, this film does a good job at keeping audiences interested in the events that unfold, which is primarily due to the nicely done character development of the main players, which was something I wasn’t really expecting from this movie. I even found myself on the edge of my seat during certain intense action sequences, which is always a plus. Although several pivotal characters are given a good amount of dialogue and screen-time, many of the other members of the Glade seem to fade into the background and are given little for us to remember them by. But that’s all right, because we’d rather have a film with a good small number of main characters than one with a clutter of poorly developed, uninteresting ones.

In terms of production value, the titular Maze is quite impressive, but overall, the film does suffer slightly from the typical sub-par visual effects and set pieces most first entry films do (remember the awful fire effects and terrible shaky-cam in the first Hunger Games?). Although the action in The Maze Runner is thrilling for the most part, it does rely on quick-cut editing and some shaky-cam to hide some of the unpolished CGI, most apparent during several Griever attack scenes. But this is a minor nit-pick in what is an overall enjoyable, good time at the cinema.

To sum it up, The Maze Runner delivers an engaging first entry film in its series, with some compelling characters and memorable performances. And although the production design and other technical elements could have been improved, it is forgivable considering that this is the first in its series, and if it manages well with audiences and the box office, a bigger budget will likely be given to its sequel, which we all hope will be the next Catching Fire of book-to-movie sequels, because in my opinion, this film is already better than the first Hunger Games movie.

Final rating

The Maze Runner gets 7.9 out of 10 stars

– A great kick-starter to a potentially successful book-to-film series.