Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Ami Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, Blake Cooper, Kaya Scodelano
Director: Wes Ball
Running time: 1 hour and 53 minutes
It used to be witches and wizards. Then it was vampires and werewolves. Now it's all about dystopian futures. That is where Thomas' story comes to life. In a dystopian future; and more specifically in a maze. Thomas is one of many children who were put in the middle of a maze with no recollection of how they got there or any memory of their past. How did Thomas and the others get there? How could they get out?
Director: Wes Ball
Running time: 1 hour and 53 minutes
It used to be witches and wizards. Then it was vampires and werewolves. Now it's all about dystopian futures. That is where Thomas' story comes to life. In a dystopian future; and more specifically in a maze. Thomas is one of many children who were put in the middle of a maze with no recollection of how they got there or any memory of their past. How did Thomas and the others get there? How could they get out?
"The Maze Runner" is based on the first book of a trilogy written by James Dashner. Having read the book in question and having enjoyed it quite a lot I decided to go to the movies to see how the words would translate on the screen. This is my opinion on that "translation".
Since it is in the title let's start with what I thought about the actual maze. So here it is: The maze itself is stunning. The beautiful and tranquil, full of greenery, middle part of the maze called Glade is right out of a nature magazine, while the mazy (not really a word) part of the maze is super industrial and cool looking. There are walls after walls, layer after layer, dead ends and wrong turns and everything looks amazing. Better than I imagined it.
Now that we got that out of the way it's time to move on to the story line. Like in the book there were some worthwhile moments in a dramatic sense. !!SPOILER ALERT!! If you want to see the moment when Thomas decides to go into the maze to save Alby, it's there. If you want to see the scene when Thomas decides to sting himself so that he can remember, that's there too. Being fan of the dramatic (sometimes even the cheesy dramatic) I enjoyed those moments and scenes, but that's about as good as it goes. Especially for someone who has read the book and knows how everything pans out. I was never nervous or excited; I was just emotionlessly watching a series of events while always knowing the next step of the sequence.
As you may have guesses already I wasn't a big fan of the movie and one of the reasons why is the lack emotional connection with all of the characters. Even though I had read the book and did like Thomas (and loved Gally) I felt no emotion towards them in the movie. Is Thomas going to get killed by the Grievers? Who cares; certainly not me. A team of good actors playing a banch of characters with no personalities to speak of (the inventors took only their memories, not their character traits supposingly).
What I would, also, like to add is that not only was I indifferent to Thomas but i, actually, disliked him. His obvious favoritism towards some of the characters was very annoying and at times cruel. They decided that Thomas was going to play God (and by they i mean the screenwriters and even Dashner a bit) because everyone would only try to save certain people from the human killing machines and those people were, always, picked by Thomas. It wasn't as obvious as i describe it but no less frustrating.
The book is about 376 pages long and the movie is 113 minutes long. That time to page difference really took away from the film for me. Everything that happens in the first 3/4 of the book is cramped into a 45 minute period. I felt that everything happened too fast, not giving the audience the chance to take it all in the way someone reading the book would.
Another very important flaw that of the movie that i thought was, also, a flaw in the book (maybe even more than the movie) is the ending !!SPOILER!!. I don't understand how could no one figure out for the three years they were in the maze that it was just a test? Or that if you study a maze the same way for three years and you haven't found anything that means you won't find anything for the next 100 years if you don't change something in your ways? (Isn't "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" what they say?)
And, finally, let's talk about the Grievers and every scene that they are in (which are a lot of them). Everything was too loud, the Grievers themselves were faky gross looking and i was not really scared by them. When i was reading the book i was picturing more of a mechanical invention and if the story was different i wouldn't mind if something wasn't exactly as i thought it would be but seeing as the Grievers were created by people i really wanted something more similar to what i was imagining. Because of their appearance and the way they sounded every scene featuring them felt more like a Sci Fi scary horror film, which isn't what the rest of the movie was.
In conclusion, i was really disappointed with how The Maze Runner turned out. I don't recommend it to those who have read the book but, maybe, if you are going in cold you might like it.I will, probably, read the second book, not so sure i will watch the second movie.
Score: 42%
Tomatometer: 63%
m.
As you may have guesses already I wasn't a big fan of the movie and one of the reasons why is the lack emotional connection with all of the characters. Even though I had read the book and did like Thomas (and loved Gally) I felt no emotion towards them in the movie. Is Thomas going to get killed by the Grievers? Who cares; certainly not me. A team of good actors playing a banch of characters with no personalities to speak of (the inventors took only their memories, not their character traits supposingly).
What I would, also, like to add is that not only was I indifferent to Thomas but i, actually, disliked him. His obvious favoritism towards some of the characters was very annoying and at times cruel. They decided that Thomas was going to play God (and by they i mean the screenwriters and even Dashner a bit) because everyone would only try to save certain people from the human killing machines and those people were, always, picked by Thomas. It wasn't as obvious as i describe it but no less frustrating.
The book is about 376 pages long and the movie is 113 minutes long. That time to page difference really took away from the film for me. Everything that happens in the first 3/4 of the book is cramped into a 45 minute period. I felt that everything happened too fast, not giving the audience the chance to take it all in the way someone reading the book would.
Another very important flaw that of the movie that i thought was, also, a flaw in the book (maybe even more than the movie) is the ending !!SPOILER!!. I don't understand how could no one figure out for the three years they were in the maze that it was just a test? Or that if you study a maze the same way for three years and you haven't found anything that means you won't find anything for the next 100 years if you don't change something in your ways? (Isn't "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" what they say?)
And, finally, let's talk about the Grievers and every scene that they are in (which are a lot of them). Everything was too loud, the Grievers themselves were faky gross looking and i was not really scared by them. When i was reading the book i was picturing more of a mechanical invention and if the story was different i wouldn't mind if something wasn't exactly as i thought it would be but seeing as the Grievers were created by people i really wanted something more similar to what i was imagining. Because of their appearance and the way they sounded every scene featuring them felt more like a Sci Fi scary horror film, which isn't what the rest of the movie was.
In conclusion, i was really disappointed with how The Maze Runner turned out. I don't recommend it to those who have read the book but, maybe, if you are going in cold you might like it.I will, probably, read the second book, not so sure i will watch the second movie.
Score: 42%
Tomatometer: 63%
m.
Courtesy of
20th Century Fox
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