Review of The Maze Runner (2014) by Lucas F — 29 Mar 2018

Waking up in a forest glade just outside of a giant labyrinth known as "The Maze", Thomas (Dylan O' Brien) a young man with no memory of his former life, ends up joining a group of boys that have been forced to remain in the settlement.The sole expections being known as "The Runners" who are tasked with trying to locate a way out of the maze. When Thomas ends up killing one of the seemingly invincible Griever monsters that guard the Maze, he, along with a female newcomer named Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) must convince the boys to take the chance and escape thier prison for good...

Ever since the huge success of Gary Ross's film adaptation of The Hunger Games in 2012, throughout the first half of the 2010's, the science fiction genre in films and tv shows mostly used the same young-adult formula when writing dystopian fiction, with the failed Divergent series being the prime example of this trend.

Although The Maze Runner does reuse a lot of the sub-genre's most tired tropes without adding anything new to it, such as having a cast mostly consisting of young adults, having a not very subtle anti-oppression message and a bland use of cinematography and production design. What sets this film apart from the other however, is the fact that romance plays absolutely no role in the story, despite the fact that only one female character is present within a cast of young males.

Wes Ball, in his directorial debut, knows how to get great performances from his young cast. Although the two lead roles from Dylan O' Brien and Kaya Scodelario aren't that interesting to watch, the rest of the cast such as Thomas Brodie-Sangster's wisecracking Newt, Ki Hong Lee's warrior runner Minho and Will Poulter's angry, yet desperate leader Gally, all steal the show with likable personalities and interesting arcs.

Overall, The Maze Runner is a pleasant suprise, even if some of the cliches of young adult dystopia fiction do prevent it from being a truly great film.