Spotlight #07 - the Maze Runner

It feels strange posting a review of this almost a full month after it came out, but I only got the chance to see it this last week for my sister's birthday. I hadn't read any reviews of it beforehand, and there wasn't any buzz. It may have helped the experience a little bit, because I really found myself enjoying this movie. Not having read the book beforehand, I was surprised at how well the handled the story. It was bold, fast-paced, and really left me something to think about afterwards.
The story follows a boy named Thomas... and that's all you really know about him at the beginning. Without any knowledge of his past, he is thrown into a glade in the middle of the maze with a group of other boys ranging from ages ten to twenty(-ish). They have formed a stable society where 1-everyone does their part, 2-  no one kills another person, and 3- no one enters the maze alone. Of course, it becomes immediately apparent that Thomas is different from the others in that he's actively curious about finding a way out of the maze and learning what it all means. Allies and enemies appear in the glade, and as the society starts to crumble around him, the goal becomes clear: find a way out of the maze, or die at the hands of the monsters in it.
Now, from the trailer, I was almost certain I had the whole plot figured out. Some government conspiracy, "Hunger Games" vibe, yadayadayada, happy ending venturing into the unknown. It didn't help too much that the first several minutes of the movie are spent teasing this. However, after that, it managed to take a few turns I hadn't seen. It ended up being very dark and brutal. Having seen it under the presumption that it would be like "the Hunger Games," I was fairly shocked about how much it wasn't like "the Hunger Games". Nobody here seems to be outright bent on killing everyone else, and it added quite a bit of complexity to most of the characters. Sure, not all of them seemed to be doing too much to help the situation, but the ones that were furthering the plot really drove it home.
Now, what kind of Th'Den Wheja post would this be in the middle of October without any talk about the monsters? Here, they're known as "Grievers", and I couldn't stop thinking about unfortunate Minecraft experiences while hearing that. Otherwise, they were very genuine. In terms of design, they were very familiar to the point where I could recognize where each body part was and what it did, but it still felt as alien as you'd expect a homicidal cyborg to be. The scenes they were in were pretty well-paced, and got me on the edge of my seat more than once. Sure, there was a line between the animation and action, but it was astoundingly thin, especially for the type of movie this is. They added rather well to the bizarre aesthetic, and they were used in a way I wasn't expecting them to be. Honestly, I'm willing to say that the film was one of the smartest and most unique uses of monsters in recent history.
Now, as a mystery, you'd expect a lot of things to be explained at the end. This case, however, is quite a mind-screw. As I said earlier, it did change so much of what I thought the film would be about. It is a game-changer, but I will say that it was a little confusing. Apparently, while the film would have been good on its own if they wrapped it up there, the ending teases for a second film in a pretty mean way. In my family, it seems to have us divided on whether it could be considered a good ending or not. I'm going to take a risk and say that it wasn't, but darned if it didn't get me excited for the sequel.
"The Maze Runner" has really changed my thoughts about the blockbusters of 2014. Especially after the disaster that was "Transformers 4", it was a relief to see something that felt like it mattered to me after I left the theater. It was well-performed, expertly-executed, and left me wanting to see more. There were a few extraneous characters, and it really did just feel like a setup for the next installment, but it wasn't bad as such. I'm not exactly going to call myself a die-hard fan, but I'm most likely going to put this in my DVD collection, and I'm guessing you will, too.

All rights owned 2014 by 20th Century Fox, no copyright infringement intended.