#TheMazeRunner, English Hollywood Film Movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * *

#TheMazeRunner, English Hollywood Film Movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: *  *  *

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 #TheMazeRunner(English) Rating: * * * Another cinematic adaptation of a successful Young adult novel, this one provides enough thrills, action and tension to keep you glued to your seats! 

Yet another cinematic cashing-in of a successful young adult novel, this live game show concept film has sustained adventure and thrills to keep you interested. #UniversalPR #ParagDesai #FoxStar #WesBall #DylanOBrien #KayaScodelario #WillPoulter #JamesDashner

                                                              

English Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Film: The Maze Runner

Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Thomas Sangster, Aml Ameen

Director: Wes Ball

Rating: *  *  *

Running Time: 114 min.

Synopsis:Based on the bestselling novel by James Dashner, this adventure thriller for young adults follows a young boy named Thomas who finds himself trapped within a giant, deadly maze with a group of other kids. While he has no memories of his life prior to the maze, he is plagued by nightmares about a shadowy organization known only as W.C.K.D., and hopes that these fragments of memories will help him discover the secrets of his past and a way to escape

Review:

This uear and the couple of years before it, have seen a surfeit of YA novels turned into films, fueling an upsurge at the box-office. This one has James Dashner’s successful novel to thank for it’s prototypical structure of a manufactured dystopia where Young people( read teenagers) are set-up in a confined space in an effort to examine their intelligence and prowess. We saw the similar set-ups in ‘hunger Games.’ ‘Divergent’ and ‘The Giver’ so there’s really nothing new to it.

There’s opportunity to be had like in the films mentioned earlier, there’s lots of room for tension with a threat perception heightened by monsters of the mechanical-metallic kind.  It’s quite a weird world of imagination where youngsters are being experimented on while the oldies control the show in the background. Not much is deduced from this first issue though. Without much of a back story and with piece-meal scientific exposition to support the main thread you would well wonder what all the hullabaloo is about. The entire fulcrum of dramatized events plays out like a live TV game show but because it’s a life and death accoutrement, the tension builds up quite well. Wes ball handles the account telling quite efficiently lending pace and accompanying it with varying excitements.  

In that frightening Utopia populated by teenage boys who form their own eerily idyllic society selecting their own leadership and their own rules, which they think will help them achieve a peaceful sense of order. But once Thomas(Dylan O’Brien) shows up in the big rickety freight elevator that’s also loaded with supplies, things begin to get out of hand. 

The teenage boys who populate this eerily idyllic society have formed their own leadership and their own rules, and they think they’ve achieved a peaceful sense of order.

 Like the others , Thomas has no memory of who he is and no idea how he got there. He is plagued by those nightmares though. He is not allowed to participate in the community activity until he has proven himself within the rules. Alby (Aml Ameen), the first to arrive, is the de facto leader. Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is his impish right-hand man. Gally (Will Poulter) is the muscular bully. Chuck (Blake Cooper) is the wisecracking chubby kid. Minho (Ki Hong Lee) is the head of the runners: boys who dare to enter the treacherous maze to explore the pathways beyond. The arrival of the first girl ever sent up in the elevator, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who seems to know Thomas on sight but can’t recollect the connection. .

No doubt that these set of characters are typical of traditional teen-flick stereotypes.  

To add to it you have Patricia Clarkson playing the mastermind, in a minuscule appearance. The end is a little too open ended. You could draw many conclusions but since the sequel is already on the way you may not need to think deeply.

Wes Ball manages a tight, surprise hewn engagement, The film’s sound design manages to add power to the already inveigling atmosphere created.  It’s quite startling and effective; and puts you on edge right  from the start itself. The camerawork by Enrique Chediak (“127 Hours,” “28 Weeks Later“) catches much of the action in close quarters. Wes Ball may not have had much experience previously-his last film being an animation short ‘Ruin’ which was his calling card for this offer. He and his team handle the visual elements quite aesthetically. Ball and cinematographer Enrique Chediak do well to optimize the picture for large screens without compromising the effects for  scenes shot on a smaller scale.Spo all-in-all this one’s a successful entertainer!

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