Review: The Maze Runner

PHOTO CREDIT: OFFICIAL MOVIE POSTER

BY SARAH SHARPE

Dystopian future. Teenagers fighting for their lives. Manufactured monsters that attempt to kill the the main characters. One of the protagonists is exceedingly special and will lead everyone to freedom. I know I’ve seen this movie before…

All joking aside, the screen adaptation of James Dashner’s The Maze Runner is a cinematic spectacle. The production design brings you right into the mysteries of The Glade and its ominous, surrounding maze. The cast is top-notch, starring Teen Wolf’s Dylan O’Brien as the titular character, Thomas, Nanny McPhee’s Thomas Brodie-Sangster as The Glade’s second-in-command, Newt, and We’re the Miller’s Will Poulter as the film’s antagonist, Gally. The action keeps you on the edge of your seat and the surprises are nonstop. Though lovers of the book may strongly disapprove of all the changes the story supposedly went through, I walked out of the theater with my heart-pounding and wanting to know what happens next. As I said before, the plot may seem recycled, but director Wes Ball was able to create a thrilling adventure that has brought audiences coming back for more.

The movie begins with a boy (O’Brien) riding a dark elevator that is brought up into a place called The Glade (a big field that is surrounded on all four sides by a vast, seemingly endless, labyrinth-style maze where humongous bio-mechanical, spider-like creatures called Grievers reside). The boy has no memory, except that his name is Thomas, and soon learns that all the other boys who inhabit The Glade are the exact same way. Every month for the past three years, a new boy has been brought to The Glade and given a job. Among these are The Slicers (butchers), The Med-Jacks (doctors), The Builders, and The Runners, a special group of boys who run The Maze every day when its doors open and map it out, in hopes of getting out of there once and for all. A few days after Thomas arrives, the first girl, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), is brought into The Glade, but that’s only the first of several changes that occur after Thomas’ arrival.

Thomas and Teresa seem to be the key to finding the way out, but all-too quickly, alliances are formed, rules are broken, and nothing for the Gladers will ever be the same.

Some of my favorite elements of the film were O’Brien’s fabulous performance, the horrifying depiction of The Grievers, the amazing chemistry of the cast, and the incredible cinematography that beautifully captures The Maze. One thing I didn’t like, however, is the extremely complicated explanation given at the end of the film as to why the group was sent to The Glade in the first place. I won’t give away any spoilers, but because the story is the first of a four-soon-to-be-five book series, I feel safe revealing the final line: “Phase One was a success, now onto Phase Two.” I have no doubt, though, things will become clearer in “Phase Two”, The Scorch Trials, set to premiere September 18, 2015.