One of the big film genres currently dominating Hollywood is
the ‘Young Adult’ genre AKA films based off of best-selling books. I guess you
could say it really got started when the first ‘Harry Potter’ film was released
in 2001. Of course we all know how successful that franchise was and in the
early years of its existence, other studios tried to cash in on the success of
‘Potter’ by adapting other best-selling book series to film like the
‘Inheritance’ trilogy, the ‘Alex Rider’ series, and ‘A Series of Unfortunate
Events’. However, none of those series were really able to match the success of
‘Potter’. The first real franchise to do this was the ‘Twilight’ series though
really that’s more from a commercial standpoint because well, to put it quite
simply, those movies are straight-up terrible. And once Twilight become
popular, the ‘Young Adult’ genre cycle started up again and once again we saw
numerous franchises like ‘The Mortal Instruments’ and ‘Beautiful Creatures’ attempt
to cash in on ‘Twilight’ and of course most of them struck out big time. Now
that ‘Twilight’ is over, ‘The Hunger Games’ has become the next major successful
‘Young Adult’ film series. ‘Divergent’, released back in March, managed to be
successful enough for a follow-up and this month it looks we have another new
franchise on our hands in the form of ‘The Maze Runner’, based off of the 2009
book of the same name by James Dashner and I can safely say that this is easily
one of the better films of the ‘Young Adult’ genre.
The film begins as a boy named Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) finds
himself in a dark elevator with absolutely no memory of who he is or what has
happened to him. He ends up in a mysterious grassy area where he comes across a
group of other boys who have established their own community in this area,
which they refer to as ‘The Glade’. Thomas learns that they have been trying to
escape via the large maze surrounding ‘The Glade’. However, for the last three
years they have been unable to find a way out for two main reasons. First of
all, the maze changes every day but what’s worse is that at night the doors
leading into the maze close. Those who end up trapped inside then have to deal
with a bunch of strange creatures known as Grievers that inhabit the maze.
Thomas soon manages to prove himself when he becomes one of the first Gladers
to ever survive a night in the maze and as he gains the trust of the others, he
soon begins to try and figure out not only why they are all here but to also
find a way to escape this place with the help of some of the other Gladers,
including ‘Runner’ (The term used to describe the Gladers who try and figure
out a way out of the maze) Minho (Ki Hong Lee) and the one and only female
Glader Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who apparently connected to Thomas in some way.
I just want to preface this review with a quick disclaimer:
I have not read ‘The Maze Runner’ so this film basically served as my official
introduction to the franchise and overall I must say that it was a very satisfying
first look. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the story is pretty compelling.
You are as much in the dark as Thomas is when it comes to why he and the other
Gladers were put in the Glade so you’re interested in finding out the truth.
Without giving anything major away, the final payoff may be hit or miss for
some people but I found it to be pretty intriguing even though it does sort of introduce
a major plot-point in just the final few minutes of the film and from what I’ve
read online, this plot-point isn’t even introduced in the books until the
second novel, ‘The Scorch Trials’ (that and the film does have one of the more
obvious ‘sequel-baiting’ final lines in recent memory). Still, the movie does hold
your interest from beginning to end and I am very much interested in seeing how
the rest of the story is going to play out. The visuals are pretty solid in
regards to the overall production design, especially when it comes to ‘the Maze’.
And that’s not that surprising considering that the film’s director, Wes Ball,
has mostly been known for his work in visual effects. Ball makes his
feature-length directorial debut with this film and overall he makes a pretty
solid first impression in regards to his directing.
Another one of the film’s biggest strengths is its cast. The
character of Thomas is a pretty likable lead character and O’Brien certainly has
the right amounts of charm and likability that makes him perfect for the role.
As for the rest of the cast, one of the big things about the story is how the
rest of the boys in the Glade have established a perfectly functioning society.
The arrival of Thomas in the Glade results in some of the Gladers, most notably
Gally (Will Poulter), believing that Thomas’ behavior/actions will end up
ruining the peaceful existence that they have been living for the last few
years. It’s an interesting story dynamic and the main members of the cast do have
excellent camaraderie with each other. It really does sell the whole idea of
these boys having made their own personal society in a way that has been
described as ‘Lord of the Flies mixed with Lost’. Also, it is pretty nice to have
a Young Adult film franchise centered on a male lead for once whereas other
films in the genre (especially in recent years) have primarily been led by
female leads (e.g. ‘Hunger Games’, ‘Divergent’, ‘Twilight’, etc.). That’s not
the case of ‘The Maze Runner’, which features a pre-dominantly male cast save
for two female characters. In other words, you can sort of refer to this film
as ‘Hunger Games for boys’ and I’m perfectly fine with that.
So unlike ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Hunger Games’, I went into
‘The Maze Runner’ having not read not the book beforehand. But after seeing the
film, I can safely say that I am now very much interested in checking it out
because ‘The Maze Runner’ is certainly one of the better films of the ‘Young
Adult’ genre. Of course having not read the book I can’t really say anything
about how faithful this film is to the source material. However, I can say that
the film greatly benefits from having a story that is pretty compelling that
will keep you wondering what’s happening until the very end. Plus, the film has
a pretty solid cast, with an excellent lead in Dylan O’Brien’s Thomas and a
group of boys with great camaraderie with one another. And like I said earlier,
it is good that the ‘Young Adult Book Adaptation’ film genre will now be a
little more balanced thanks to this film being centered on a male lead and
featuring a mostly-male cast. I assure you that I will be there next year when
the second film of this series, ‘The Scorch Trials’, hits theaters and I’m glad
to see that one of the better films of the Young Adult genre is experiencing
the success that not every Young Adult film franchise has had.
Rating: 4/5
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