Movie Review: The Maze Runner (2014)
Posted by Naqhii
From IMDB:
Storyline
Thomas wakes up in an elevator, remembering nothing but his own name. He
emerges into a world of about 60 teen boys who have learned to survive
in a completely enclosed environment, subsisting on their own
agriculture and supplies. A new boy arrives every 30 days. The original
group has been in "The Glade" for two years, trying to find a way to
escape through the Maze that surrounds their living space. They have
begun to give up hope. Then a comatose girl arrives with a strange note,
and their world begins to change. There are some great, fast-paced
action scenes, particularly those involving the nightmarish Grievers who
plague the boys. – Rating Unavailable as US Release Date is September
19, 2014
This happens once a month to some poor kid. The future sucks if you’re a kid. ©20th Century Fox Malaysia
Okay, first off I don’t usually think much of young-adult books let
alone movies based off young adult books. You know the ones I’m talking
about, The Twilights, The Hunger Games and Divergents of that particular
genre. I would wait and see what the general consensus is of those
movies and even if they were good I still wouldn’t watch it. The only
opportunity I’ve had of watchin anything from this genre of films would
be to accidentally catch bits and pieces of it as someone else was
watching it or it happens to be playing within reach of my eyes and
ears. And even then whatever bits and pieces I did catch didn’t impress
me or make me want to stay longer and watch. Not even morbid curiosity
could make me do it. In fact, to tell you the truth, morbid curiosity
didn’t even rear its head let alone make an appearance with regards to
movies of this genre. And since there are no ratings let alone early
opinions for this movie to be found anywhere online, I shall be
reviewing this in my usual way, based on it’s own merit. So here goes.
Okay so you now that this movie is based off a young-adult novel. And if
you’re a fan of this you’re thinking based on the trailers that maybe
it’s something along the lines of Hunger Games or Divergent but with a
maze thrown in for good measure. Well, that’s what I thought it was too.
Yes, I do know a little about those movies and what goes on in them. I
may not want to watch them but that doesn’t mean i’m completely ignorant
of them. I don’t live under a rock.
Big, tall walls and one big gate. Welcome to the Glades. ©20th Century Fox Malaysia
Anyway, this movie is focused upon Thomas who shows up at the Glades one
fine day with no memory of anything not even his name. The Glades is
the name given to a square patch of earth surrounded by walls on four
side with gates in each of them. Everyday one of the gates will open at
dawn and stay open until sunset. What’s beyond the gates? Well, you
guessed it, the Maze.
The Glades is home to a bunch of teenage boys, who got to the Glades one
at a time a month at a time. By the time our hero shows up it’s been
about three years. In those three years the Gladers, as they call
themselves, have tried every conceivable way to get out or to get a view
above the walls. So far, no luck. The main characters that you’ll meet
are Alby, Newt, Gally, Minho and Chuck.
What the Gladers know of the Maze they gathered from their own
explorations of it. And exploring it falls to the Runners. No one else
is allowed in the Maze, it’s one of their cardinal rules. Now you’re
thinking this sounds a bit like Hunger Games or Divergent where they had
factions and teams. Well this one does but there’s no trial or games or
test or a hat to decide our hero’s future team. He just sorts of falls
into it.
See how small the people are and then notice how far the wall goes. It’s
pretty much the same in the other direction too. ©20th Century Fox
Malaysia
Anyway, about the maze, as mentioned the gates opens at dawn and stays
open till sunset. The Gladers are warned not to enter the maze if they
are not Runners and even if you are a Runner you have to get out before
sunset because come sunset a creature they call the Griever comes out.
Griever? Isn’t that what they call those women that get hired to cry at
funerals? Anyway, the Grievers in this case are not women nor do they
grieve. If anything they cause grief for the Gladers that find
themselves trapped in the maze after sunset.
Anyway the first half is pretty typical, hero wanders around and tries
to fit in while figuring out what’s what and who’s who. It gets
interesting when he encounters a Runner in the forest while on a trip to
get fertilizer. Yes, he is asked to go into the forest to get
fertilizer. Another thing that was weird about this is that on his way
he encounters a grave marker with the name George on it and just below
this marker and clearly visible is a ribcage swarming with flies. Why is
it weird? Well, because it is completely irrelevant to the story
apparently as our hero doesn’t bring it up ever. Well, while looking at
this odd scene the Runner pops up and screams at him that he’s seen him
and that he’s to blame. The Runner has we find out later been stung by a
Griever and that this has never happened before. Now prior to this we
are told that the Runners go in every morning as a team. So the question
is, where are the other Runners? Do they go in there as a team and then
once inside they go their separate ways? Or maybe this time they were
ambushed by a Griever and then they separated to escape it. If so what
kind of team mate do you have that leaves you and then abandones you
completely without looking for you? Maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Anyway as mentioned this being stung during the day is strange enough
that Alby their designated leader decides to join the Runners in their
next outing to figure it out. Maybe they have CSI like abilities
to help them. Three years they couldn’t find their way out. Three years
no one alive has seen a Griever and come back alive and some how this
time they’ll figure out why a Griever would sting during the day.
Anyway, they barely make it back and while Minho, the leader of the
Runners, is carrying Alby on his back and making his way towards the
gates it begins to close and no one waiting at the gate tries to come in
to help them. Rules are rules apparently and even when you can help
someone you shouldn’t break it. Except of course our hero who by this
time has remembered his name when during a wrestling match the night of
his arrival he bumps his head and remembers that his name is Thomas.
Bumps to the head apparently help when you have amnesia, or so the
movies would like you to believe.
This happens every day. There isn’t anything else to do in the Glades. ©20th Century Fox Malaysia
So the gates close on Minho, Thomas and the unconscious Alby. Alby’s
unconscious because he was stung. Anyway, trapped inside they need to
find a place to hide. Thomas comes up with a brilliant idea when he
notices a wall covered in creeping vines. His idea is to hang Alby up in
those vines to hide him. While pulling Alby up the vines, a Griever
shows up and Minho being a Runner does what he does best. He runs away,
leaving Thomas to hold onto Alby and keeping him from falling back down.
Somehow, while holding on he slips below the curtain of vines and to
his surprise there’s enough space for him to hide. That’s sort of weird.
If that space was already there why not just hide in there after making
a dense camouflage made of those vines? After all Thomas manages to
hide in there just fine without the Griever spotting him when it walks
by.
Anyway, the Griever passes by and Thomas ties off the vine and leaves
Alby to find have a look at the Griever. The Griever of course spots him
and begins chasing him. During this chase you discover that the Griever
is an animal-machine hybrid. It’s really ugly has like eight legs and a
tail. The face looks like across between a plump green raisin and a
slimy nose booger with teeth. And it can climb walls. Anyway, he runs
for a bit and out of nowhere Minho comes back and tells him to follow
him. Where the hell has he been this whole time? Why come back now?
Anyway, the run and come up to a section of the maze that’s changing,
the run down a path as it begins to close but Thomas stops and waits. So
you can guess what happens next, right? He barely escapes leaving the
Griever to be crushed right at the end.
Morning comes and the make it out of the maze. Funny thing is, when Ben
the Runner jumped Thomas after being stung you’d assume that his change
from normal Ben to crazy Ben would have taken hours. But apparently in
Alby’s case it’s different. A whole night after being stung and he
doesn’t show signs of going nuts and what’s more when they caught Ben
they kept him isolated in a caged pit and then forced his crazy ass into
the maze at sunset to survive on his own. Alby’s special because he’s
their leader i guess.
The maze is changing and big blocks are falling and rising and yet Minho’s hair is perfectly gelled. ©20th Century Fox Malaysia
Well, Alby’s out and Thomas is still curious about the Griever so he
decides to go back to have a look. A bunch of them go back and surprise,
surprise the walls that look like they weigh several hundred tonnes and
the machinery that moves them didn’t turn the Griever into Griever
slush but left just enough pieces for them to discover. What did it
leave? A cylinder with a blinking light on one end and a display
flashing the number seven. So they take it back.
Not long after their return to camp and while Gally the village
pessimist is trying to get Thomas punished for breaking the rules they
hear a loud horn. The sound signals the arrival of another boy but oddly
enough this is too soon. So off the go to the lift to check it out only
to find a girl in it. The girl manages to open her eyes for a while and
calls to Thomas before passing out. In her hands is a piece of paper
with the words, ‘This is the last one. Ever.’
So now, Alby their leader is out, they’ve got a blinking cylinder from a
Griever and a girl shows up. If I remember it was at this point that
Minho asks Thomas to meet him in the forest. In the forest Minho leads
him to a hut that only Runners are allowed in and shows him a scale
model of the entire maze. He also tells him that they completed it a
while ago and Alby decided to not tell anyone else in order to not cause
panic or demoralise the others. If this were true it’s still hard to
believe that none of the other Runners would mention this either in
confidence to someone else or in a fit of frustration. Think about it,
you’d have to keep running into the maze everyday for no other reason
that to keep up a lie while not finding any new path or a new clue to a
way out. It would piss me off.
This is what most guys look like when they see a hot girl sleeping. ©20th Century Fox Malaysia
After this little reveal and a little bit more information regarding the
maze they both decide to go back in and have a look at a specific area
of the maze. An area with the same designation as the the number
flashing on the side of the cylinder. When they go to check the area out
they discover that the cylinder acts like a switch opening an area that
apparently leads to the lair of the Griever that the cylinder belongs
to.
Anyway later, the girl wakes up, causes a commotion which Thomas helps
calms down. As they talk she shows him two vials which she has in her
pocket. They are interrupted when someone calls Thomas to say Alby is
now awake. They go over and see that Alby is in writhing and in pain.
Out of the blue, Thomas suggests they use what’s in the vials to help
Alby. His reasoning, it couldn’t possibly hurt or make things worse
since he’s already suffering. So they all come to the Glade in a lift
with amnesia that never goes away, the Glade is surrounded by an
ever-changing maze that has a mutant-machine hybrid prowling the dark
and a girl shows up with a mysterious liquid in vials. Yes, let’s use
that to help our sick leader, it couldn’t possibly turn him into a
monster if it doesn’t kill him first. So they stick him with the vial
and he passes out. When he comes to they find him sitting alone and
sobbing. When asked if he’s okay and if he remembers anything, he says
he remembers it all and that Thomas is to blame. Then he stops talking.
That’s nice.
As if all that’s happened isn’t enough suddenly the mysterious people
behind the maze decides to open all four gates to the maze. This causes
general panic among the Gladers. With all the gates open it means that
come sun down the place will be swarming with Grievers. And of course
that’s exactly what happens. A lot of kids are killed but after what
seems like a short rampage and killing spree the Grievers go back into
the maze. In the last moments of the rampage as a group of the Gladers
defend themselves against a Griever, Alby who is among them manages to
knock off the stinger on the tail of the Griever before it kills him.
When that Griever decides that Alby’s death is enough for the evening
and goes back to the maze Thomas has a sudden insight. He decides to
stab himself with the stinger. His insight? Everyone who has been stung
begin to remember and whatever they remember points back to him. Of
course they use the second vial to cure him and he recovers with his
memory fully restored. Isn’t that nice that she had just two of those
vials?
The run into the maze and out every day. You’d think they’d look fitter but they don’t. ©20th Century Fox Malaysia
Memory fully restored he tells those that believe him that this is all a
test. That all of them have been under observation.That this was all
done on purpose. Meanwhile, the Gladers are split into two factions. One
on Gally’s side who want to restore things to the way it was and those
that want to follow Thomas and find a way out. No prizes on who is in
control. So when Gally decides to punish Thomas and Teresa by offering
them to the Grievers and their masters they execute their plan. Those
allied with Thomas help him escape and they make their way into the maze
with whomever else is willing to join them.
So the happy group make their way through the maze back to where Thomas
and Minho found the lair of the Griever. Surprisingly nothing happens to
them during this little trip which is odd. Earlier they found it odd
that Ben was stung during the day. And then of course after all the
commotion the gates were left open for the Grievers to come and go as
they please. So what’s happening here? Where are the Grievers? Anyway,
they make it to the lair and guess what? That’s where the Griever was.
They rush the Griever and somehow manage to hold their own and push it
over the edge. Meanwhile a couple of Grievers are climbing up the same
wall that the Griever they just pushed off. So what gives? Can Grievers
climb walls or not? Or only some can and others can’t? Make up your
mind.
Well, the two Grievers push them up against the door which now needs a
combination to open the lock. And Thomas thinks that the sequence in
which the different areas of the maze open in a month is the key to
opening the lock. Why? Why would anyone who designed such a complicated
maze choose a that as a combination?
They’re running away from Grievers that look like living slimy boogers
with lots of tiny sharp teeth. ©20th Century Fox Malaysia
Anyway it isn’t a surprise that the combination is the right one and
they find themselves in a corridor. A very long one. They walk a bit
until they find a door with an exit sign on it. And they open it only to
find themselves in a fancy laboratory where everyone is dead. The look
around and Thomas decides to push a flashing red button which initiates a
video playback. They watch a woman explain everything.
She explains that the world outside has been destroyed by the sun and
that those that survived it was then beset by a virus, a disease that
destroyed the brain. That only the young could survive it. But they
needed to know why, so the maze was created to test out their theories
and hypothesis and that they were the ones choses to take it. But
because not everyone agreed with what they were doing they were now
under attack. She kills herself at the end of the video. When they look
away from the screen they find Gally standing in front of them with a
gun in his hand. Gally’s been stung. He threatens to kill Thomas but in
between the threats by Gally and pleading from Thomas, Minho manages to
throw a spear right through Gally’s heart but not before Gally lets off a
shot. Chuck is shot. If I haven’t mentioned Chuck before let me just
explain that Chuck is a cherubic looking fat kid who’s death is supposed
to pull at your heartstrings.
Well, thats not the end because while Thomas is blubbering over Chucks’
death the doors open and armed men enter and take them away. They’re
ushered into a helicopter and told everything will be okay as they fly
towards what’s left of a city. Meanwhile you get a shot of the woman in
the video wiping off the blood from her head while she casually mentions
that it’s on to second phase. And that’s the end.
So this is after the Grievers rampage and everyone looks pretty decent
right? Shirts still look ok and the hair is perfect as usual. ©20th
Century Fox Malaysia
Now I’m not to sure if I mentioned that I don’t quite remember the exact
sequence of the events in this movie, so if i didn’t I’m mentioning it
here. The scenes above are what I remember as I’m writing it. Overall
though, with regards to the movie, I thought it was a fairly decent
movie. The characters strangely enough don’t stand out. They’re
unremarkable. Unimpressive. Forgettable for some reason. And this for a
movie that is supposed to have sequels is a little odd. The lead just
seemed to me like a panicky sort of fellow. And Teresa didn’t really
make much difference either. She brought a note and two vials and she
appears in his dreams. That’s it.
The other main characters that survive, Newt and Minho. What’s their
purpose? Newt’s role throughout the movie was just as Alby’s replacement
and even then it felt like anyone else could have done it. Minho? Well,
he’s a Runner. Maybe he turned out to be Thomas’s sidekick but frankly
speaking it didn’t feel that way either.
In the end you discover that the maze is just the first step in a larger
plan but what’s the plan? Usually at the end of movies like this you
are left at the edge of your seat. You want the answers now but that
didn’t happen to me. I wasn’t left curious or wanting more. That pretty
much sums up the movie. It’s filled with characters and elements that
don’t seem to matter much. You’re given little crumbs of exposition that
help the story to move along to the next scene and the next. You get
nothing of substance. Your stomachs full but somehow you’re still not
satisfied. It’s strange this movie. I wasn’t bored but neither was I
completely entertained. I can’t say if this young-adult novel based film
is better than the others as I haven’t seen the others so I can’t say
it’s bad either.
After 2 years of mapping they completed it and kept it in an unguarded
hut. And no one went in to sneak a peek apparently. ©20th Century Fox
Malaysia
If you’re looking for an entertaining movie and you’ve seen everything
else this isn’t a bad movie to settle for. If you’re worried it’s going
to be another Twilight or Hunger Games or Divergent,
I can safely say that Maze Runner isn’t like that, at least from what I
can tell. There is no love story thrown into the mix so you don’t have
to worry about the lead actor and actress swooning at each other. All in
all this movie tries to be a full on action adventure set in an
interesting environment but for some reason it just didn’t draw me into
the story or impress me.
So on it’s own merit I give it a decent 3 out of 5.
So on it’s own merit I give it a decent 3 out of 5.
The Maze Runner opens this 11th of September in Malaysia so go watch it and find out for yourself if it’s good or not.
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