At its core The Maze Runner is a great idea. It has both an interesting set-up and mystery. However the movie was predictable and cliched, with too much lazy exposition and underdeveloped ideas and characters. Plus the ending made little sense and was laughable.
Story
The basic premise was solid and for the first 30 minutes of the film I was invested and interested in this world. That quickly changed as the plot became more and more predictable and cliched even to the point where I was able to guess what the next line of dialogue would be. The movie draws elements from countless sci-fi movies that have come before yet does little with the material in terms of originality. The ending, which I won't spoil, is the worst part. The twist/revelation is laughable and absurd. It makes little sense as it fails to provide any answers but merely raises more questions. Bookreaders may be more forgiving of this, however a movie should not need to rely on its source material to fill in its own plot holes. A movie should stand on its own, and this doesn't.
Characters
While the acting is decent the characters are not. Most do little other than spout needless exposition (why is there a name for everything?) yet hold back on important information. This was likely better developed in the book but like I said, a movie should stand on its own.
Direction
The direction was overall good. Unlike the infuriating directing in the first Hunger Games, the direction here is solid and mostly engaging. I would have liked greater set up to the Maze's monsters (something like Jaws) rather than revealing them almost immediatly destroying the chance for any real scares or suspence.
Visuals
Like the direction the visuals are overall good. A lot of thought went into the maze itself and it shows. Though the Maze's monsters are a cross between a Licker from Resident Evil and a Terminator they aren't the most original or scary of designs.
What's more disappointing was that, had this not been another typical YA book-to-movie adaption, the basic premise could have made for a much deeper and philosophical sci-fi film. And I think this is also a problem with the book, which likely could have been better as a proper novel and not one aimed at tweens. This could have been a darker Lord of the Flies-esque tale with a sci-fi element (the maze) that delves into the nature of human beings when facing an estranging element while cut off from civilization (like Cube). This story had the potentiol to be a movie closer to Snowpiercer but instead its closer to the likes of Hunger Games and Divergent (though easily better than both).
RATING: 2/5 STARS