Film review: The Maze Runner (12A)

The Maze Runner (12A) review

You may feel that the young adult (YA) movie market is getting a little crowded at the moment.

We’ve had Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent (to name but a few) in recent years – and, depending on your taste, you may have already tarred The Maze Runner with the same brush as one of those.

Thankfully, the big screen adaptation of the first of James Dashner’s three post-apocalyptic books is more Hunger Games than Twilight, which can only be a good thing.

The story follows Thomas (Dylan O’Brien – The Internship), a young man who wakes up to find himself in a community of other blokes known as The Glade.

It’s essentially a large green area, but is surrounded by a massive concrete Maze.

Thomas is largely welcomed by the community, as the group’s leader Alby (Aml Ameen – Beyond the Lights) and his number two Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster – Game of Thrones) explain that they have been there for more than three years… without ever really knowing why.

Indeed, all they know is that the giant Maze holds the key to their future.

Everyone on the Glade has a designated job, but Thomas wants to be a Runner – one of the chosen few who enter the Maze during the day to try and find a way out.

The only problem is, the Maze closes at night and is patrolled by machine-like monsters known as “Grievers” in a bid to keep the boys from leaving.

As you’d expect, Thomas soon discovers more in a day than the rest have in years, which coincides with the arrival of the group’s first girl Teresa (Kaya Scodelario – Clash of the Titans).

With her comes a message that things are about to change, leaving the group split on what to do next.

It’s all very Lost meets Lord of The Flies – and for the most part I was pretty impressed with The Maze Runner.

Especially eye-catching were the scenes in the Maze. The visuals were pretty breathtaking and the mystery of the structure was intriguing. The Grievers are also formidable and scary foes and really bring a fear factor to the table.

I did feel that there could have been a stronger male lead cast, though.

Both Ameen and Brodie-Sangster are much stronger than O’Brien and deliver the stand-out performances here.

That’s not to say that it ruins the film, but it just seems a strange call to have O’Brien as the main man.

A large slice of the closing stages are spent setting the stage for the sequel too, but I’m not having that as a negative. It was well documented that this would be a trilogy (like the books) and I’m certainly keen to see what happens next.

Although there’s not a huge amount of original content in the storyline, the Maze is a brilliantly realised concept. And for that alone, this is well worth running to the cinema to see.

Rating 4/5 (Watched at West End Cinema, Boston).