Another movie based on a book that no one needs to read anymore when you can just wait for the movie.
Maze Runner is the story of Thomas and the boys of the Glades that happen to exist around him. Apparently, before Thomas, no one was disobedient of the rules or challenged the authority system that was in place. However, of course, the new guy is the one to do it.
Maze runner is set in the middle of, you guessed it, a maze. The glades sit in the middle of huge concrete walls and lush woods. The teens have formed a pseudo society divided into Runners (people who run through the maze mapping each section before nightfall), Gardeners and herders (they provide food and nourishment for the camp), and lastly the craftsmen (they build tools and shelter). The runners face many issues from getting trapped in the maze, the shifting of walls disorienting them and arguably the most dangerous, the griever which is a giant mechanical spider. After one of the runners die in the maze Thomas runs in to help Minho (one of the normal runners) drag the body out of the maze however they both get trapped in the maze. Minho promptly tells Thomas no one survives a night in the maze. Not only do Minho and Thomas survive the night they also manage to kill a griever which had never been done before either.
Theresa appears in the glades. She is the first and only girl ever to enter the glades. She instantly recognizes Thomas before she passes out. Personally I was afraid for her safety considering she is the only girl in a camp full of males that haven’t seen a female in 3 years. She quickly senses the same thing I was thinking and retreats to a high point where she won’t talk to anyone but Thomas and attacks any boy that tries to come up with rocks. After a series of events, the glades become unsafe mostly due to the actions of Thomas himself. Thomas leads a group of boys out of the maze into the harsh world that is now their new reality but the leader of the glades decides to follow and kill Thomas only to miss and kill the lovable jokester instead. Death and tragedy have run rampant but the teens have no choice but to follow their new leader into a deserted world. As they attempt to leave, a plane lands to take them to a safe haven away from the horrors inflicted upon them.
The Review:
Honestly I know that this movie is supposed to be about questioning the status quo and that one individual can change things because they may see something from a different perspective. However, I just find myself not liking Thomas. He is a cocky jerk that thinks he knows better than everyone. The others have been there for years and haven’t managed to escape but the new guy, who’s been there days, learns how to run the maze and eventually escape. The one boy who has survived longer than everyone else is simply afraid of what can possibly be outside of the glades. The only home that any of them remembers is then abandoned by the only family that he knows because of his fear.
As much as this movie tries to make Thomas a hero he just seems like a jerk to me. One last question, how did Galley follow them if he didn’t have the griever part or was I the only one wondering that? Why are they trapped in the maze? Apparently a solar flare created a virus that caused the infected to become zombies that wiped out the world’s population and only the children had a resistance to the virus. So the adults locked the children in the maze to test them. How does a solar flare cause zombies? I have no clue. Why weren’t the people of the world able to stop the virus through testing or at least isolate the people that are affected and keep them from destroying society? I can’t answer that either.
The story development is vague, at best, other than information we “need” to know about Thomas and his backstory. We learn little to nothing about the people around him. I also wasn’t really clear on anything until the end of the movie and by the time you figured out a small percentage of the storyline, everything changes.
Final Score: 4/10
