Pleasantly Surprised: A Review of The Maze Runner

directed by Wes Ball
screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers and T.S. Nowlin
based on the novel by James Dashner

After spending several days far away from home, one of the last things on my mind was watching a movie. Thanks to heavy rain and traffic between the airport and my house, though, waiting a few extra hours suddenly seemed like a good idea, and to pass the time my wife and I caught a late screening of The Maze Runner. I knew next to nothing about the film and had only seen one trailer, and basically walked in with no expectations whatsoever. This turned out to be a very good thing as I might otherwise have been inclined to dismiss this strange, spiritual retelling of the seminal novel The Lord of the Flies as yet another post-apocalyptic, Hunger Games knock-off, which it certainly is not.

A young man (Dylan O' Brien) wakes up in a rapidly ascending elevator, which brings him to a forest glade populated by several other young men and which is surrounded by high concrete walls. The young man, who at first cannot recall his name, receives guidance from Alby (Aml Ameen), the most senior of the young men who have come to call themselves "Gladers," and learns more about the situation he is in; basically the lot of them are trapped in the Glade, which is surrounded by a gigantic maze which is open during the day but which closes at night. He learns the ropes from Alby, as well as two of the Gladers he befriends, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Chuck (Blake Cooper). The Gladers live by a few simple rules, one of the most important of which is never to wander into the maze, a rule honored by all save for a select few of the Gladers known as the maze runners. At night, the maze is prowled by the deadly Grievers, monsters that no Glader has ever seen and lived to describe, whose bloodcurdling howls can be heard in the Glade at night.

As the young man's memory comes back in pieces, though, he comes to remember his name, Thomas but little else, at least by way of coherent information. One thing he doesn't need his memory to realize, however, is that he has to get out of there, a growing preoccupation that does not sit well with a few of the Gladers, particularly the hulking Gally (Will Poulter). When all kinds of strange new developments turn up, though, such as the abrupt arrival of the only girl ever to enter the glade, the mysterious Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), and a few other frightening occurrences, it becomes clear that leaving the maze is not simply a matter of personal liberty but of survival.

The film is hardly groundbreaking, but it's got quite a bit going for it. For one thing, even on a shoestring budget it offers some really striking visuals, as not even the Hunger Games films can boast a set piece as striking as the enormous maze that surrounds and menaces the Gladers. More importantly, however, the filmmakers, presumably taking their lead from the novel (which I haven't read), keep their narrative cards quite close to their chest, shrouding almost everything that goes on outside of the Glade and the maze in mystery until the very last few minutes of the film, and even then only giving away just enough to let viewers know that there will be more adventures to come. Such storytelling economy isn't all that common in an era of two-and-a-half-hour blockbusters, a goodly chunk of which is usually spent on considerable exposition, and it is a breath of fresh air. Structurally, though, the film feels a little flimsy, and I'm sure I could pick apart the logical gaffes in the film if I really sat down to think about it. To their credit, though, director Ball and his crew kept things moving along briskly enough for me to surrender myself to this movie and its world for the duration of its running time.

I wouldn't call this a great movie, anyone waiting at a mall for traffic (or rain) to ease up, and thinking of a movie to watch and pass the time could do a lot worse than this.

7/10