I’ve got some sort of physical ailment that’s plagued me for a few years now. I can enjoy the cookie cutter movie whose plot inevitably crashes and burns, and Maze Runner is one of them.
Much like the Resident Evil series the plot truly goes nowhere, a fact that becomes a disappointing realization towards the end of this movie. Unlike the bland and coma inducing Resident Evil movies however, Maze Runner does a capable job at what it’s asked.
Being completely thrust into the situation from the main character’s point of view the first half of this movie played the mystery card well. Setting an overall tone of doom and confinement, I thought it set a good tone with a great pace that kept you occupied.
It doesn’t trick you with the pacing, but it’s pretty brisk to say the least. You follow the main character Thomas who mysteriously has his memory wiped like the rest of the survivors in this movie.
He’s different than his peers, which is pretty obvious from the start. If you didn’t get it the first couple of hints, the director makes sure to bash you over the head with this fact.
It’s a bit cliched and nothing you haven’t seen before but the concepts were certainly interesting. I enjoyed the maze running and chase scenes and it felt genuine until the 2nd third of the movie.
The walls seemed imposing and immersed me with the sense of imprisonment, and you didn’t know who or what was running the maze. Had the movie continued along on this slower plot reveal, the movie would have been much better off.
Like most monster movies, showing the monster shatters the fear of the unknown. Maze Runner has quite a few nifty tricks with the monsters and how they interact with their surroundings, but after that it’s a one trick pony.
Sadly the attack on the center of the maze unraveled what suspense had been built, it would have made better sense for them to flee into the maze at that point.
Also, where the hell is this running water coming from? Isn’t the earth scorched? Why is this one patch of land not scorched? These kids have lived here three whole years and nobody has followed this water to the wall? Why aren’t they digging the dirt under the maze? THREE YEARS?
Why waste all these resources on being evil when you could just as easily replicate this environment and oh, I dont know.. maybe live?
This is where Maze Runner feels so much like Resident Evil, where the antagonist is just Evil Person and their motives don’t exist.
Sending the girl into the maze also made zero sense unless the masterminds behind this megabillion dollar behemoth maze are also sadists. Sorry but I don’t have much faith in a band of prepubescent boys that have lived together without the sight of a female for three years, given the circumstances. I dunno.. call me negative.
The entire plot folds upon itself in a comical gesture that felt a bit insulting, but I don’t think it ruins Maze Runner for me. Although the entire plot just didn’t make sense and it derailed into a sloppy generic action movie time, I liked the first part which saves it in my eyes.
What did you think about this movie? Let me know below and thanks for reading.
