SPOILERS!
Yeah sorry most of these come out a day or two late I'm really bad at either remembering to do these or having time to do these updates. Anyway on to the review.
I couldn't get anybody to see Boxtrolls because I would either be grounded or my friends would not speak to me for the rest of the year. So I saw Maze Runner this week and before I get on with the actual review let me just say this was the worst audience I have ever seen a movie with. I usually love audiences when they pay attention and have good time and everyone is happy for one collective moment. The audience here were some of the most annoying people ever, they were talking so much that I could not tell if it was people in the movie in the background talking or them. This is why they really need to make theaters better and more controlled because this shit happens and makes me want to go Machete on people.
Anyway Maze Runner is based on a young adult book about a group of all boys trapped in the center of a deadly maze they must figure out how to escape from. Our main hero is Mr. Wooden picket fence Thomas (I'll get to that later) as he braves the maze and makes new friends and enemies along the way to find a way out of the Maze and discover the truth behind it.
First the good- the movie unlike other young adult novels has a really original and rather interesting (if extremely flawed) plot that is well paced, really suspenseful and is just for once plain different then the boring revolution war plots that are really being run into the ground. The film also has amazing action, set design and special effects that you can actually see during action scenes. This film was only made for $32 million dollars basically proving you don't need $100 million dollars to make a sprawling world adventure block buster movie.
Some of the best parts of the film is the boys interacting, working together and performing Lord of the flies style tribal acts. It's really engrossing and made me actually wish the film was longer just to see them all interact more because all of them have really good chemistry with each other. The film is overall all well acted by most of the main cast but the main cast is where the problem lies.
The main character is Thomas played by Dylen O'Brien who I'm sorry teen wolf fans he is pretty bad, albeit it's probably because Dylen O'Brien has nothing to do except be either stupid, annoying or make funny faces at the camera. He literally has no personality outside of breathing. In a movie your main protagonist is the guy you are supposed to be rooting for, throughout this movie me and the person I went with was hoping Thomas would get killed many times throughout the movie. He is so goddam stupid and annoying, he grows to be tolerable by the end but good grief couldn't any of the more interesting boys take over.
The main girl Therese has nothing to do and from what I understand (I never read the book) she has a bigger part later in the books but she has no reason to be their and has literally nothing to do. The main villain Gally played by Will Poulter, unlike O'Brien he's a good actor and I bought his voice and demeanor in playing a touch guy but his appearance and that really fat baby face didn't sell It completely and while for the most part I bought it for a lot of people he didn't take.
Now the cast is not bad, their are some really interesting side characters. Alby who is kind of the magical black butler has a really interesting backstory that never really gets fleshed out and it's sad because Spoiler alert he dies albeit sacrificing himself for a little kid so at least he went out with dignity. The Asian kid Minho while not as interesting is very bad ass and very likeable throughout the movie. The British kid Newt was really good as he is very likeable from the time he shows up and is probably the most charismatic of the bunch. Their is also kid Chuck the youngest child in the maze who is one of the few with a three dimensional character (albeit SPOILERS dies at the end which felt sadly undeserved and emotionally manipulative, I wished Thomas had gotten shot instead.)
Alby, Minho, Newt and Chuck would have made way more interesting protagonist to follow as all of them are likeable and charismatic enough to carry a movie where as Dylen O'Brien's Thomas just cant, he has no Charisma, no personality and nothing really outside of being handsome.
The ending of the film is also what brings the film down a lot of begs as it's very much a twist that has been run into the ground. SPOILERS (a twist they ruin in the first ten minutes of the film.) they were put their to test their immunity to a solar flare disease that has been plaguing the earth called the flare (really?) Which already their are plot holes to that as was genetic testing in a laboratory not an option because that seems less expensive then building a giant freaking maze full of probably expensive mechanical monsters. A much more interesting twist would have been that these kids were abducted by aliens and Thomas and Therese were Aliens themselves who were put their by punishment for trying to fear the boys or put in their as a phase of the experiment. The whole point of the experiment being studying human nature and not some convoluted disease?
Also their are other plot holes like why don't they just build giant ladders and bridges to get over the maze or equip the runners with weapons such as spears and machetes instead of just their running shoes.
Yet despite the glaring plot holes, horrible lead, and horrible ending that nearly threw up the interesting plot and throw it into the ground. It's not that bad, it's entertaining, the side characters are really good and in all honesty I want to see a sequel to this because the potential is their if they have the balls enough to stray away from the books and do their own thing, as well as pull a hunger games and switch up the director and writer.
I give this film a 7/10~ Bad plot holes, bad lead, bad ending but still enjoyable with the premise, effects, side characters and potential.
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