2/3 of the way through, The Maze Runner was beyond impressive. In fact, it was very near the peak of the young adult dystopia films: The Hunger Games. Directed by first time director Wes Ball who is known as a visual artist, The Maze Runner contained a mysterious premise, solid visuals, and a strong young cast. Then the secrets come out like in the novel on which the movie is based. The Maze Runner’s third act collapse partly ruins the engaging first half, which rivets with tension and intrigue.
The movie starts with a boy (Teen Wolf’s Dylan O’Brien) jettisoned up an elevator into a place called the Glade. From there he is given a tour by Alby (Aml Ameen), the first inhabitant of the Glade. He tells the boy (who finds out his name is Thomas) the history of the place: how Alby and a group of teen boys live in the Glade because a maze prevents them from escaping. The maze opens only for so long and is protected at night by mysterious insect like Grevers. Thomas yearns to become a maze runner, tasked with learning the pattern of the maze and led by Minho (Ki Hong Lee). However, Thomas’s curiosity is seen as a threat by Gally (Will Poulter) and other cautious teens. Also complicating matters is when a girl, Theresa (Kaya Scodelario) is sent up the elevator with the last of the supplies and told no more help/people will be sent into the Glade.
As we learn about the mysterious circumstances of the kids, The Maze Runner is nothing short of electric. The Glade and the culture of the children unapologetically draws from Lord of the Flies: the kids have rules and jobs to keep order, with some kids willing to break rules and others more inclined to instill order. The maze is a fun enigmatic design. The movies high point is when a couple of the kids are forced to spend a night inside the maze, revealing some of the disturbing secrets inside through quick cuts and strange noises or sharp corners. The grevers are extremely creepy to look at, invoking a combination of a spider and a Sentinel from the Matrix. As the circumstances surrounding the maze change, the political conflicts among the kids erupt into violence, with Gally leading the charge to return to stasis. The slow build of conflict from within and without gives the first 2/3 of the Maze Runner lots of pop and momentum.
This momentum leads headlong into the crash in the third act. I suppose I’ll warn with a SPOILER ALERT in case you want to go in knowing nothing. Of course the maze completion was going to be the end of the first film; this story is a known YA series. However, the process to pushing the kids into the maze is clunky at best. Through the use of dream sequences and ridiculous logic leaps, Thomas finds out about his special status and some of the reasons the teens were sent to the Glade. The reasons are not motivating enough to justify the groups belief in Thomas, and rings the final excursion into the maze pretty false. From there, the action sequence are jumpy and hard to follow so as to hide violence, but it’s hard to tell what is happening. Most maddening, is the Maze Runner could have ended 20 minutes early and been fine, ending as the kids leave the maze. The last 20 minutes, like the last chapters in the book, are filled with more unnecessary reveals, character pop ups that would never happen, and a jarring change of scenery. The final act of the Maze Runner undercuts the tension of the first two thirds by rendering it near pointless, a flaw in the book that the movie maddeningly keeps.
I’ll call the cast of the Maze Runner your next group of heartthrobs and stars. Dylan O’Brien is very good as Thomas. O’Brien has the charisma of any good leader, plus sells his curiosity and emotion when needed. Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper (the fat one), and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (the smart one) all ably support O’Brien with some good depth and nuance. Will Poulter crafts Gally into easily dislikable but understandable, a harder task considering his lack of screen time. Kaya Scodelario is underutilized; more padding of how a girl ruins the groups dynamics would have been welcome. Patricia Clarkson shows up in dreams and is unnecessary but requisitely chilly and weird.
I feel good about the inevitable Maze Runner sequel with the strong cast. If the director gets more chances to take liberty with the source material, we could have another juggernaut of a franchise on our hands. Dylan O’Brien has almost completed the rise to fanboy power, playing a werewolf and leading a dystopic future movie. All he has to do now is release an album; teen girls may explode if that happens.