The Maze Runner (2014) Dir: Wes Ball
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I remember being a teenager and reading James Dashner's trilogy of teen sci-fi books, and being extremely excited by the prospect of a film. But while Wes Ball's adaptation isn't terrible, it falls short in a number of departments, which became evermore apparent to me upon my recent rewatching of it.
Visually, there was an opportunity for this film to look incredible, but I personally found it disappointing. The CGI was adequate, but certainly not to the level I was expecting. I felt like the set design was too artificial, and failed to inspire any sort of positive reaction from me.
Furthermore, I found the characters, literally every one of them, both bland and forgettable. Not one of them had any distinct personality, which can be attributed to the stale, ham-fisted screenplay that rushed it's narrative and failed to curate comprehensive character arcs.
The story screamed teen fiction, which is no surprise in fairness, considering the source material. I didn't dislike it, in fact, I think it was pretty interesting, although the screenplay does the story few favours. It was a substandard vision of Dashner's popular science fiction book.
Dylan O'Brien was not helped on his way to a rather apathetic performance, by the way his character was written, which was to say, horribly. He comes across, much like Harry Potter, as someone all too aware of their own self-importance, and, of course, being the only character who seems capable of achieving anything of significance in the narrative.
Kaya Scodelario has a lot more ability than she was able to show here, which was not much, in truth. Her only reap contributions were a few emotive facial expressions in the face of dire exposition and general dialogue. I felt pretty bad for her, honestly.
Of the supporting cast, the most noteworthy, though only in the sense that they were just about adequate and not a total disappointment, were the trio of Ki Hong Lee, Aml Ameen and Blake Cooper, who at least provided something of worth in their supporting roles.
The film also featured the likes of Thomas Brodie-Sangs and Will Poulter, who both failed to produce any sort of enjoyable performance, although they were each hampered by the previously mentioned underwhelming writing.
Overall, while there were still some enjoyable moments dotted throughout this teen-fiction sci-fi film, I found it rather dull in the end. I have been debating watching the sequels, I may do it, if only to review them. If this first film, as well as the online reviews, are anything to go by, I won't be missing much if I choose to skip them.
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