There seems to be a
never-ending stream of young adult post-apocalyptic literature and subsequent
big-screen adaptations coming to us now – and why not, considering the monster
successes of book-film combos like The Hunger
Games and Divergent. I imagine a
writing team sitting around a table spit balling plot ideas in hopes of finding
the next wave crest of the current dystopia typhoon -
Coauthor 1: “What
about a cube?”
Coauthor 2: “Seen
it. How about a Maze – kids in a giant maze land”
Coauthor 3: “Yeah,
a giant maze filled with monstrous challenges. Youth in maze but they don’t
know how they got there or how to get out – good idea”
Coauthor 1: “There’s
an adult operation behind this of course. But why are the kids trapped in the
maze?”
Coauthor 2: “Doesn’t
matter… we’ll figure it out along the way.”
I know that the above was
not Maze Runner’s origin – neither
novel nor film – but the movie’s derivative feel and silly non-ending made it
seem like it was.
Boys have been delivered in The Maze Runner, one by one via elevator
shaft, to the middle of an intricate labyrinth called the Glade – each arriving
with no memory of who he is or where he came from. By the time the shaft
transports Thomas (Dylan O’Brien from the Teen Wolf series) to the surface,
three years after the first boy was delivered, a small functioning society of
Gladers has been established. The veteran Gladers have seemingly explored all escape
options to no avail but still send “runners” into the maze during the day to
map its patterns, which shift during the night. The maze closes at dusk and
is patrolled then by screeching creatures called Grievers – no boy left in the
maze after the maze doors close has survived the night. Thomas learns that the fragile
Glader society is supported by supplies from the shaft that arrive monthly with
each new recruit. Peace in the Glade, its leaders believe, is maintained
through a rigid set of rules, including limits on entering the maze to explore
escape routes. The rules must be followed to avoid the past periods of deadly
savagery that are hinted at by the group’s leaders and by the names of boys now
gone that are scratched in the maze walls. But Thomas is different and the boys
sense it. Thomas sees flickers of his pre-Glade existence in dreams and his
arrival seems to have triggered a shift in the maze and Griever patterns. Things
are changing that threaten the Gladers society a veteran leader explains… and its
all Thomas’ fault.
If any of this is striking a familiar
cord, its not surprising. Maze’s story
line and plot points seem a dumbed-down mash up of previous and weightier pieces
of social examination and science fiction – the commentary on human nature in “Lord
of the Flies” and the constructed and inescapable environment of Phillip Jose
Farmers Riverworld seem obvious big brothers to Maze Runner’s more adolecent concepts. The Gladers themselves even seem
familiar with O’Brien playing Thomas in a style that reminds, even in looks and
voice, of other reluctant boy heroes like LeBeouf’s Sam in Transformers and Andrew Garfield in the latest Spiderman. I’ll grant though
that this screen-version of the Glade world, created by James Dashner’s in his
2009 novel of the same name, is an interesting set up – and Runner, I
believe, is a better first-in-a-series film than The Hunger Games. But
the intrigue of the secret of the maze’s purpose can only hold so long without
some resolution – even if only of the intermediate sort. The mild suspense the
film builds toward discovery dissolves to a risible commercial for the next
installment of the series – and lacks any sort of payoff. The Maze Runner
is, in the end, interesting but unsatisfying as we’ll all have to wait for the
next thee volumes to see if the authors of this marginally clever trap know
their way out of it or not. 5.5 out of 10
