Review of The Maze Runner (2014) by Russell G — 08 Aug 2015

I miss the days when a production studio was not sure if the movie would succeed or not. It forced them to make complete movies with a sufficient beginning, middle, and end. The blessing of a huge fan following for this series of books turns out to be a curse for the movie.

There is a promising concept with the mysteriously forbidding labyrinth. I like how the movie troughs you curelessly into the action. The main character has no memories at all, not even his name, and likewise, the audience is asking questions.

As the story unfolds, the ground-rules and constraints of this new world are interesting. The characters, however, are not as compelling as the concept. There are a few characters with strong personalities, but we do not understand much about them, who they are or what motivates them.

This protagonist may have no memories, but a little more charisma and depth than this would be nice. As far as the action goes, it is entertaining, which is a plus. Once the plot reaches a major turning point it gets in a rush.

Before you know it, the movie turns inside out, and it comes to an unfulfilling abrupt finish. The finish amounts to a "To be continued." This is not TV where we need a cliffhanger to make sure we return next week.

I still expect a tight finish or chapter ending. The shortcomings of The Hunger Games series continues to infect this wave of adolescent science fiction. Can no one refine or perfect a successful formula? I want more from the characters when there is so much dialogue.

It needs to have a greater sense of resolution or the ending of a chapter, even if it is dramatically open.