The Maze Runner (7/10)

I was curious to see what The Maze Runner was all about. It looked mighty interesting in the trailers and I thought this could be something that's a bit different from the other young adult genre movies that has came out so far.

Well, yes and no. Yes because the setting of this, being in a maze and trying to find a way out, was something that's quite different from say, vampires and revolutions. This was about finding answers to surviving.

But this was still filled with the angst of teenagers, which I could have done without, though not so much in the romance department and that was refreshing.

There was a strong cast of young actors here. Dylan O'Brien carried the movie well with his performance. And it's good to see another Game Of Thrones member on the silver screen in Thomas Brodie-Sangster.

The last time I saw Will Poulter, he was the nerdy kid in We're The Millers. Since then he has put on some muscles. And I never realised he is quite a tall dude.

The action sequences by a newcomer director, Wes Ball, were engaging and thrilling enough. I thought he did quite well for his first feature film. But it was the adaptation of James Dashner's novel that failed the movie somewhat.

This was one of those rare occasions where after watching the entire movie I had more questions than answers, or it left me even more confused than before I went into the movie.

We saw in the trailers that the whole community trapped in the maze was made of only males. And Kaya Scodelario got brought in half way through was the only female. This was never explained why it was so.

One jarring continuity issue that the movie failed to address, and this could potentially be a spoiler so do jump to the next paragraph if you are particular about it; was when in a previous scene we saw the community banishing someone who has been stung by the Grievers and yet when their leader, played by Aml Ameen, got stung, they fought hard to bring him back to camp. That raised so many questions about integrity.

I also didn't like how Lee Ki Hong's character was portrayed. Being a seasoned runner, he should have been more calm and composed in the field instead of being the coward that he was. And where did he get a blower to keep his hair up all the time, everyday?

My biggest problem with this movie was in the ending. It brought up so many more questions and with no answers in sight. Nothing about the whole plot was properly explained. Had it not been for the horrible ending, I would have liked the movie a little bit more.