Review: THE MAZE RUNNER

THE MAZE RUNNER  (SCI-FI/ACTION-ADVENTURE)
1.5 out of 4
Directed by Wes Ball
Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Kaya Scodelario, Patricia Clarkson
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, including some disturbing images.
113 minutes
Verdict: Another misfire in the canon of young adult literature adaptations, THE MAZE RUNNER starts with a leg up, but with each step towards its inevitable non-conclusion, it slowly disintegrates into a lame rehashing of the same characters and themes.
YOU MAY ENJOY THE MAZE RUNNER IF YOU LIKED:
DIVERGENT  (2014)
LORD OF THE FLIES (1990)
ENDER'S GAME  (2013)
THE HOST  (2013)
THE GIVER  (2014)

I guess the current, slowly-dwindling trend of adapting sci-fi/dystopian/fantasy teen literature to film can be most clearly traced to the HARRY POTTER film series.  That was the fantasy phase of the overarching young adult adaptations movement.  Then came the supernatural phase with THE TWILIGHT SAGA, introducing vampires and werewolves and shifting the demographic to insecure women everywhere.  We're now in the dystopian phase, spurred on by THE HUNGER GAMES, a feminist response to TWILIGHT sexism and the best film series of this trend so far.  Each of these three flagships, HARRY POTTER, TWILIGHT and THE HUNGER GAMES have had droves of imitators, none too successful at the box office, and not much better in terms of filmmaking.  Such is the case of THE MAZE RUNNER, a dystopian sci-fi adventure that starts out appearing to be a cut above other HUNGER GAMES imitators, at least on par with last year's ENDER'S GAME, but gradually falls apart piece by piece.
Based on James Dashner's 2009 novel of the same name, THE MAZE RUNNER blends elements of The Hunger Games, Ender's Game and Lord of the Flies with about a dozen cliches as Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) awakens inside an iron cage that delivers him into the center of a gigantic labyrinth, but has no memory of who he was, how he got there or what was outside the Maze.  A small community of boys deposited in the Maze under similar circumstances over the course of the past three years is led by Alby (Aml Ameen), who maintains order at the safe haven in the Maze's center known as the Glade.  Every day, those selected as "Maze Runners" chart the Maze in an effort to locate an escape, but they must return before the Maze closes off at sundown each day, or else become the prey of the Maze's monstrous inhabitants, the Greavers.  Unlike most of the young men of the Glade, Thomas is much too curious about what lies within the Maze, and he comes under suspicion when misfortune strikes repeatedly soon after his arrival, with the Greavers attacking Maze Runners during the middle of the day. Adding to the confusion is the arrival of a young woman to the Glade, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who like them, has lost her memory, except that she knows Thomas, albeit without knowing how she knows him.
The feature directorial debut of graphics designer Wes Ball, it has a strong visual aesthetic for the most part, especially the Maze itself of course, draped in vegetation and shifting walls.  The production values are plenty strong for the relatively small $34 million budget, although Ball isn't able to do anything special with the action scenes.  The young actors do well all around, some of them recognizable from their childhood acting, such as Thomas Brodie-Sangster who played Liam Neeson's son in LOVE ACTUALLY and the stink-faced Will Poulter from THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, but none of the characters are particularly interesting beneath the shallow surface.  Poulter plays the same type of bully who shows up in nearly all these young adult lit adaptations, and the kind his face limits him to, and O'Brien's Thomas has nothing to make him into a compelling lead.  Most of the time his actions come off as irritatingly unjustified, without personal or logical reason, just stirring the pot for its own sake and coming out lucky.  Perhaps the most obvious symptom of just how dull these characters truly are is how once a young lady is introduced to their pubescent male society, there's absolutely no acknowledgement of the new dynamic this adds, whether sexual or otherwise.  Who cares?  She's practically a red herring and a waste of time.
There's little resolution, barely any explanation and next to nothing there to whet the appetite for a continuation.  The more we get to know about this world and its characters, as little as that is, the less is there to care about.