The surprisingly suspenseful The Maze Runner breaks the mold of what audiences have come to expect from Young Adult adaptations
There’s something incredibly refreshing about going into a movie blind.
By that, I mean sitting down in the theater without knowing any details about the plot (aside from the basics) of the film you’re about to see and without having seen any trailers, TV spots, or other bits of revealing marketing which, in this media heavy and trailer-for-a-trailer age, can be a difficult thing to achieve. But somehow I made it happen for The Maze Runner. And I’m glad that I did.
I had seen the trailer back when it was first released, but enough time has passed so that I had pretty much forgotten about it. With theaters already inundated with Young Adult novel adaptations, I wasn’t interested in another and just assumed that The Maze Runner would be another one of them.
I was wrong.
For every YA adaptation that has failed to attract an audience, The Maze Runner should serve as a blueprint for what to do right.
The film revolves around a group of boys of various ages living inside a rural area called the Glade which, despite its pastoral name and imagery, is not as peaceful as it seems. The Glade is surrounded by stone walls hundreds of feet high and it becomes clear that the boys are prisoners there rather than willing residents. They don’t know how they got there or why, but despite this, they’ve managed to create their own little society (which will no doubt invite comparisons to Lord of the Flies).
But everything changes when Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) enters the Glade. Through his eyes, we learn that the stone walls beyond the Glade form a maze that contracts and expands every night, with a group of boys (called “Runners”) going out each morning to try to find an exit.
As Thomas arrives, he serves as the viewer’s entry into the film, asking all the questions that we’re wondering ourselves. What’s the purpose of the Maze? Who put them there? What’s on the outside? These questions are constantly at the forefront of the film and it’s the pursuit of their answers that makes it so edge-of-your-seat exciting.
Whether exploring the relationships of the characters or the mysteries of the Maze itself (which is both simple and visually impressive) as Thomas & Co. get closer to figuring out what’s really going on, the action and tension starts early and never lets up throughout its wonderfully paced near two hour runtime; and, in exploring the maze and the mysterious creatures that plague it (with an eerie combination of organic and mechanical sounds, they’re evocative of Lost’s smoke monster), and fleeting memories of the characters’ pasts, The Maze Runner is a master class in creating suspense not just for YA films but for films in general.
What’s especially impressive about the film is that—although viewers will notice a few hallmarks that reveal it as a YA movie (such as a focus on, well, young adults)—it never really feels like it’s meant for a younger audience by avoiding the pitfalls of YA adaptations: love triangles, cringe-worthy teenage dialogue (and its delivery), and overacting, to name a few.
There are some interesting characters in The Maze Runner so I wish they had been given the chance to develop more aside from the broad strokes (but it’s also tricky since the characters don’t remember anything about themselves). As a result, a little too much is left undeveloped character-wise. The same goes, to a point, for the film’s mysteries. With the film’s central hook—who put them in the maze and why?—front and center, it’s obvious that there’s going to be questions posed. However, too many are left unanswered (which, to a point, is understandable since the book series the film is based on is a quadrilogy), giving the viewer a lot to ponder until the next installment rather than resolving a few questions while leaving some smaller ones unanswered.
The Maze Runner will still be snubbed by those bored with the YA-heavy market, but with its non-stop suspense and excitement, it breaks the mold of what theater audiences have come to expect from YA films, showing that the genre is full of surprises for those willing to be surprised.
9/10
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