The Maze Runner (M)
Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee
IT IS action from the opening scene with this film.
The Maze Runner will throw its audience immediately into the middle of giant maze along with our soon-to-be hero Thomas, who has lost his memory but can thankfully remember his name and how to speak English.
If you haven’t read the book, like myself, you will be just as confused as he is about the place.
We spend a little bit of time in the peaceful eye of the maze storm, aka The Glade, watching Thomas learn how the young men and boys have been periodically brought into the maze, and turned their safe zone into a home away from home.
It is a complicated and structured society, that works around a handful of speedy and brave men who run the maze every day to map it and attempt to find an escape.
They must be back before dark, though, because as we are repeatedly told ’no-one survives a night in the maze’.
The introduction and background to the maze is very quick, and it doesn’t take long before the action kicks off.
Soon, the young Teresa, the first woman and the last person to be offered to the maze, is sent into The Glade.
She and Thomas start to piece together their fragmented memories about a mysterious organisation known as W.C.K.D. that has sent them to the maze.
It is upon their arrival that the peaceful and structured way of life the men have created starts to crumble, and all they thought they knew about their world starts to change.
In a period where young adult science fiction and fantasy films are hitting screens around the globe, it was great to see The Maze Runner stand apart by cutting to the chase of the plot, and thankfully focusing on mateship and action instead of an awkward romance.
The film also suprisingly offered no comic relief, creating a deliciously dark atmosphere for the entire 113 minutes.
While it seemed that the group found their way out of the maze a little too quickly, with only a few bumps along the way, I was interested to know that this was only the first phase of their test.
The temptation to see how they fare next, and to just basically understand what is going on, is too good to resist.
The movie will leave you feeling a little bit like a rat in a maze, coming away with more questions than answers, but I guess that is the perfect objective of a potential movie franchise.
The love child of The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, The Maze Runner is a good choice for those looking for a bit of fast tension and action without the cliches of a young adult fantasy flick.
– Erin Somerville
