Cast: This is a young cast. Except for Patricia Clarkson showing up toward the end, it's a bunch of 20-something's playing teenagers, although I didn't think about that until it was over. I'll call that a good thing. Dylan O'Brien is best known for being in Teen Wolf and I fully believe he is an MTV star. He's not a particularly dynamic lead, but he can pull off the physicality, which is the most important aspect of this role. The rest of the cast are the "Oh, I remember him in _____" type of young actors, getting the meatiest roles of their careers so far. There's Aml Ameen (The Butler), Ki Hong Lee (The Nine Lives of Chloe King. Remember that?), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones, Love Actually), Will Poulter (We're the Millers), and Blake Cooper (He's completely new to me). You would think that in a cast almost entirely made up of men, the only female role would be a significant one, due to the contrast if nothing else. Well, you'd be wrong. Kaya Scodelario shows up and goes almost completely undeveloped. Anyone looking to do a Bechdel Test on this, I'll save you some time: Fail.
Plot: A bunch of boys are trapped in the middle of a giant maze, a new boy being added each month. That's as high concept as you can get, and it's easy to see how that pitch could lead to green lighting a movie.The movie begins with Thomas (O'Brien) being sent into the maze. Slowly, all the other boys explain the culture and the rules they've set up over time to him. Of course, being our protagonist, Thomas quickly shakes things up by breaking the rules, questioning things that the others have put to rest, and succeeding at things previously thought impossible. You can assume the rest of the beats from there. With a movie like this, there's not enough time to cover all the interesting elements of the premise. There's an entire Lord of the Flies element that is mostly ignored, for example. The movie is about getting out of the maze and that's it. I'm not sure we ever get an proper explanation for what's so special about Thomas. Despite a lot of the other boys being incredibly capable, he's apparently the only one that knows how to set things into motion. There's a lot of history in the maze that is hinted at but none of it is developed. They hint at instability in their little society in the past but never say what happened. They literally say "Anything you think of, we've tried twice" but we don't see much sign of anything they have tried. Basically, it's a lot of telling rather than showing: a decision I assume was made to keep the time down, yet those things interest me far more than the story we get.
Elephant in the Room: Another YA dystopia? This is getting frustratingly formulaic. There's this first book/movie and it has a killer hook like a battle royale with children (Hunger Games) or a selection ceremony and training academy (Divergent) or, in this case, a bunch of kids stuck in a maze. That gets people's attention. These stories are always about the fall of the current evil government and the disintegration of this system that was destined to fail. Of course they are getting out of the maze. Then what? And that's where they lose me, because now we're stuck with a bunch of kids trying to save the world or lead a rebellion that they aren't equipped to do. Much like I said with The Giver a couple weeks back, I'm way more curious about how this system came to be rather than how it's going to fall apart, because, of course it's going to fall apart. Every part of it is implausible. Where's the thought out explanation of how the maze was made or how it can be controlled. Sure, these are boring questions. They are also the difference between a good story and a cool idea.
Movie Theater LVPs (Least Valuable Patrons): This has to go to the group of girls in the corner of the theater for being so diverse in their methods of being annoying and distracting during the movie. Be it talking at normal volume during the beginning of the movie, giggling loudly during any serious moments, somehow getting louder when telling each other to keep it down, or even finding a way to repeatedly squeak their seats loud enough for the entire theater to hear, they were a constant reminder of why I prefer to see R rated movies with age limits.
To Sum Things Up:
I'm obviously tired of these movies. If this is your kind of movie, this will not disappoint. It has all the things you want (attractive men, easy to understand obstacle, a lived-in fantasy world, etc.). My issues with the development of the story are enough to sour me on the thing as a whole. It's hard to pass a final judgment in the end because it's just part one. It ends assuming there will be a sequel (and there will be). There's no attempt to wrap things up or anything like that. It is a stopping point. Maybe the sequel(s) will reveal a more fully realized world. For now, "Hunger Games clone" will have to be a suitable moniker.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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