Review: ‘The Maze Runner’

So, like, there’s this maze, right? We’ll call it The Maze. And in the middle there is this, like, open glade area with trees and shit. We’ll call that The Glade. And there are all these teenage boys forced to live in The Glade in the middle of the Maze. And they like totally call themselves Gladers. Except for the new guys. They’ll call them Greenbeans. And Greenies! So the Gladers and Greenies live in the Glade in the middle of the Maze, which has weird monsters that they will caaaaallll…let’s see…I don’t know, fuck it, they’ll just call them Grievers, for why I have no idea. Because they grieve? Anyway, the Gladers also split themselves up as Builders and Slicers and Runners, and there’s a virus that causes The Changing, in which the infected, like, uh, changes. And there you go, boom, we got a story. That was easy, let’s go get something to eat.

End Scene.

That’s how I imagine the writing session for “The Maze Runner” took place. The whole movie, based on a popular (I guess, so I’ve read on the interwebz) young adult fiction sci-fi fantasy novel, is full of these archetypes, the characters have names for everything that exists within this universe and it gets really silly really fast when every time the main character Thomas turns around, someone else is telling, “This is such and such. We call it The Something” or whatever. There were even a couple of times where it felt like they could have given things more names and identifiers but didn’t do so and all I’m saying is why not go all out. “This is the time of day we get together and eat some food. We call it The Feedening.” Or how about “This is when we all go to sleep. We call it…The Sleeping.” Just keep doing it. Everything has a name.

Anyway, the movie actually starts with a fair dosage of intrigue and mystery, as the movie starts with Thomas in some sort of elevator and we quickly find out that he has no memory of anything and he is trapped in some sort of enclosed area with a couple dozen other people his gender and age range. And as he is told about The Glade and The Grievers and The Glistening and The Shining and The Seasoning and so on, some answers to the mystery are provided but more questions come up and there is actually something quite compelling here. Outside of a couple of quick, dream-like visions (which actually telegraph the ending from a mile away), there are no flashbacks, no leaving the Glade, they never even really leave Thomas. As he learns more, we learn more, and the totally linear revelations of what was going on worked quite well for the most part.

There is a definite Lord of the Flies thing going on here, with the group of boys who formed their own little society complete with community rules and initiation rituals and the assignment of roles, including one kid who seemed to pull “Glade Doctor” out of the job hat because when someone asked how he got his job, he simply replied with something like “The same way as everyone else.” And during Thomas’ time among these guys, their rituals and patterns fall apart all around them, and they have to decide whether Thomas’ arrival at The Glade was a good thing or bad thing. Meanwhile, Thomas gets himself a job as Maze Runner and runs around the maze a little and fights some Grievers sort of and tries to find a way out.

Here’s the thing with the Maze stuff. They make a big deal about how no one has gotten out of it and how it constantly shifts and changes and yet when the runners head in there, they have absolutely no problems running around and then finding their way back to the Glade. Even when they are being chased by monsters and the maze is supposedly shifting and changing around them, they are never shown struggling to find their way around or desperately looking for their way back, they just move through it with ease. And never does the changing of the Maze ever pose an obstacle or a threat. Kind of weird.

And then there’s the ending of the movie, where the story totally loses me both plot wise and in terms of enjoyment. Without going into details or spoilers, let’s just say that the reveal of what is going on with the maze and the purpose of it all is a little confusing as a LOT of information gets dumped out really fast and it doesn’t seem to make much sense. Then it becomes quickly apparent to those who don’t know anything about the books (like myself) that this clunky ending is not really an ending, but instead is the dreaded set up for the inevitable next installment in what is apparently meant to be a whole new movie franchise. Want to know what the hell this “ending” means? Be back here in two years for “The Maze Runner 2” for the answers. Yeesh.

Which is a shame because for a while I was enjoying the mystery and the possibilities and the implications, it all reminded me of the vastly superior and somewhat similar sci-fi movie “Cube,” but with teens and less danger and more answers. The movie is okay enough but nothing to really get excited about. And if there is never a sequel, it wouldn’t bother me any, because I don’t need the further adventures of Thomas and friends, I’m done with this world. One visit was enough.