DIRECTOR: Wes Ball LEAD CAST: Dylan O’Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Dexter Darden, Kaya Scodelario, Chris Sheffield, Anish Surepeddi, Patricia Clarkson SCREENWRITER: Noah Openheim, Grant Pierce Myers, T.S. Nowlin PRODUCER: Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Ellen Godsmith-Vein, Lee Stollman EDITOR: Dan Zimmerman MUSICAL DIRECTOR: John Paesano COSTUME DESIGNER: Simonetta Mariano GENRE: science fiction, action thriller CINEMATOGRAPHER: Enrique Chediak DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox LOCATION: Louisiana, USA RUNNING TIME: 113 Minutes
Technical
assessment: 4 Moral assessment:
3 CINEMA rating: PG 13
Debuting director Wes
Ball opens the movie with 16-year-old Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) struggling in a
freight elevator shooting up underground. It surfaces in a place inhabited by
teen boys he had never met before.
He learns he is now in “the glade”—a wide expanse of meadows and woods
surrounded by massive concrete walls.
The glade has been home to the boys who have been placed there, one each
month, for the past three years, arriving like Thomas in the same conveyor,
remembering nothing of their past except their names. This makeshift society is led by the first arrival Alby (Aml
Ameen); having survived in the glade alone for one month, he has become their
natural leader. Newt (Thomas
Brodie Sangster), second in command, tells Thomas they are virtual prisoners in
the glade, the eye of an enormous maze whose ever-shifting walls are too high
to scale. It is the duty of Gally
(Will Poulter) to enforce the rules in the glade, the most important of which
is never to enter the door to the maze—a tantalizing portal that closes by
itself at night when gigantic bio-mechanical creatures called Grievers patrol
the maze. Thomas is warned
that no one has ever survived a night in the maze.
Adapted from James
Dashner’s bestselling 2009 book of the same title, post-apocalyptic sci-fi
movie version of The Maze Runner
joins the ranks of The Hunger Games
and Divergents as young-adult
adventure thriller. Although the
story is compelling, it is not without loopholes. The absence of a back story also hinders characterization,
although acting is adequate and convincing, given the bit of uneven handling of
the cast. The Maze Runner’s
strongest technical point is the action, which owes its excitement to the
sensible balance between CGI and natural human skills. No superhero strength for the
characters, no demi-godly powers, no flying—just running and a great deal of
guts.
The Maze Runner has for its redemptive elements a strong moral worldview and the
message that man has an innate capacity for good. Despite the loss of past memory, its characters
display courage, selflessness, kindness, and a sense of sacrifice. Although clueless about their
confinement in the glade, the boys prove that teamwork can build a harmonious
community where each has a duty to keep their habitat livable. Living off the land, they grow
their own food, some are goatherds, some are craftsmen making tools and
building dwellings from sticks.
Three rules of paramount importance in the glade: Do your part with
work, never harm another Glader, and never go into the maze.
