The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner is an American science fiction action thriller directed by Wes Ball. The 2014 film is based on a 2009 novel of the same name by James Dashner. The screenplay of the film was written by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin. The film, which was produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, and Lee Stollman, is the first installment of The Maze Runner film series. Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Will Poulter belong to the leading actors of the film.

The plot of this film is exciting and inventive but it doesn’t seem really out of the ordinary to me. By this I’m pointing at recently released films like The Hunger Games and Divergent. The Maze Runner tells about Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), a 16-year-old boy who finds himself trapped inside a huge maze with a band of other teenager boys. Once in every month an elevator brings a new boy with some supplies to an area called the Glade surrounded by tall stone walls. Anyone of the boys doesn’t seem to remember anything from their past, except their own name. They have created a working society and at the same time tried to find an escape from their prison. Each morning an entrance opens revealing the mysterious ever-changing maze. The boys, who call themselves Gladers, know that the only way to escape is to go through the maze. The runners spend their days exploring the maze for an escape. They have to get back before night-time when the entrance closes. No one has ever survived alive a night in the maze.

I didn’t go to the movie theatre to see this film, but I guess that if had done it, I would probably have seen a big amount of other teenagers in the audience. It’s clear that The Maze Runner was filmed for getting teenagers to watch it. This kind of fantasy films that usually take place in the future are a trend among teenagers and young adults. The casting of this film only strengthens my theory. As an 18-year-old girl I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy watching the good-looking young actors.

My opinion is that the cast was chosen successfully. Most of the actors weren’t nice to watch only because of their looks. Despite their young age they seemed to be experienced enough to make the characters and the action scenes plausible. My absolutely favorite parts of the film were the action scenes. The leading actor Dylan O’Brien, who is known for co-starring in the TV series Teen Wolf, did a good job playing the role of Thomas, the most important character in the film. Other great performance was given by Will Poulter playing the role of the “bad guy” Gally. Poulter manages in making his character seem irritatingly defiant and a bit arrogant. I also want to mention Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who is known for his role in the popular TV series Game of Thrones. His performance as Newt, the friendly and helpful boy, made me long for a bigger and more important role for the character. It was a pity that at the same time the film moved forward, Newt’s role became more and more meaningless.

The Maze Runner’s problems are the ordinary characters and plot, I think. The film contains all the same characters as every teenager fantasy film that I have seen. First, there’s the hero of the film. The hero is always nothing special but at the same time so brave, original, and oh, so hard for other people to understand. Of course the hero has to have a couple of sympathetic and faithful friends to stand behind their back. Then there’s the cocky “bad guy”. At the beginning of the film I was wondering where all the girls were. Everyone knows that you can’t make a good film for teenagers without having any girls or signs of romance in it. Luckily this problem was solved when the elevator suddenly brought a beautiful brunette, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), to the Glade.

I am not a huge film enthusiast, and therefore I would probably have never watched The Maze Runner, if I wouldn’t have been visiting my sister’s place, and wouldn’t have had anything better to do one night. After watching the film my first thoughts were that the ending left many questions in my head and that the film hadn’t been as scary as I expected. I can’t recall thinking anything about the music used in the film, so I guess it wasn’t too bad or too good to make me notice it. One thing that bothered me was how slowly the film moved forward.

I would recommend The Maze Runner to those people who are interested in these kinds of fictional fantasy action films, and of course to those who just enjoy watching good-looking young men. Personally I’m not quite sure whether I liked the film or didn’t like it. Overall I found The Maze Runner interesting enough to make me want to see the upcoming sequels.