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Finding himself abandoned in a glade with his memory erased, Thomas becomes one of the many other teenager boys locked within an enormous, ever-changing maze. Whilst the other boys seem content with staying put, Thomas is determined to escape the maze and learn the truth.
The Maze Runner isn't a bad film, it's just a painfully average film that lacks any sort of originality, even though the initial set up of young men being trapped within a maze seems promising. The simple fact is, we've seen it all before, and done better, with The Hunger Games. The similarities are simply endless, essentially boiling down to young people being placed at odds against tyrannical grown ups. There's everything you would expect from a group being thrown together, from the good-hearted, fat kid to the over-bearing antagonist, and a philosophical leader figure - you can pick out who will live to the end credits from the moment you set foot within the Glade.
The cast do an admirable job with singularly one-dimensional characters. Dylan O'Brien leads the pack as determined Thomas, who literally turns up and decides that everyone else will be dragged along with him and his scheme to escape their predicament. This role will undoubtedly cement O'Brien as a rising star, and he earns it, giving depth to a character that a lacking script fails to explore. Will Poulter plays your typical antagonist, a bully who likes to show off his superior strength and locks horns with Thomas at any opportunity. Poulter is a great actor, and it is criminal that he's given so little to do here apart from arch his eyebrows and walk around with his arms folded. The rest of the characters could well be interchangeable, as they all seem to lack any sort of agency when Thomas isn't there to rally them to his cause. Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), apparently second-in-command, is an utter push over, whose role seems to boil down to delivering overly-long exposition.
There are some good bits about it. There's an especially tense sequence in which three characters find themselves locked inside the maze at night, finding themselves pitted against the Grievers, who are actually quite scary. The film works best when it echoes Lord of the Flies, including a scene wherein an infected boy is harshly dealt with, and the soundtrack is rousing and emotive.
As another addition to the YA cinematic library, The Maze Runner fails to stand out from its competitors. The cast holds up what would have been a very poor film without them, but an underdeveloped script and a formulaic structure keep it from being anything more than an easy watch in the evening.
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