The Maze Runner - Not great (so why did I enjoy it?)

‘The Maze Runner.’ I would start by saying that it’s one of those ‘teen sci-fi romance’ films.  Ever since ‘Twilight’ came along – where the basic premise is that you take a supernatural (or science fiction in some cases) event then add a teenage love story and you have a highly successful (and therefore profitable) franchise.  I was going to say that, as when it started it certainly felt like one.  Only it had an ‘all male’ cast (yeah, you could add a bit of romance to that, but you’d have to be one brave screen writer).

Anyway, ‘The Maze Runner’ is about a bunch of young lads, all of which have been captured and imprisoned in a field, surrounded by a maze.  Why?  We don’t know, but obviously we’ll find out.  And, when a new guy arrives in a box (that’s how ‘new arrivals’ get there, apparently) he decides that they should do more than just farm, eat crops and get eaten by giant cyborg spiders.  Did I mention those?  There are a load of giant robot spiders living in the surrounding maze who have a tendency to eat the kids if they stray too far.

Okay, so it’s a reasonably simple premise – kids have to find a way out and work out why they were put there to begin with.  However, it’s far from perfect.  Its problems are simply that there are too many plot holes everywhere.  Seriously... you just can’t actually allow your brain to think about anything for too long.  Because, if you do, you’ll realise that most of it doesn’t make sense.

Then I realised why it felt like a ‘teen romance.’ A girl arrives in a box.  Guess what... she falls for the main guy.  But I still enjoyed it.  Even though the maze (and everything in it) is heavily computer-generated, but I overlooked that.

I guess my brain was obviously tired and I wasn’t thinking about all the negative elements contained inside it.  Then there’s the ending.  Obviously I can’t go into that in too much detail without giving away things.  My advice... the film is about an hour and fifty minutes long.  After an hour and FORTY minutes, just turn it off – you don’t need the ending.  It really is the worst bit.

So, if you have kids, they’ll probably enjoy it.  The romance element isn’t too central, so I suppose it must be for younger boys than girls.  Plus people like me who can allow themselves to dumb down enough to appreciate the action scenes and general atmosphere may get something out of it.  As much as I know I should hate it, I just don’t.  And I can’t really say why.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that