The Maze Runner

"As director Wes Ball builds the eeriness around the complex entrapment of a community of boys living a Lord Of The Flies type existence, he is ably aided by imaginative and well-executed production design and special effects."

- Udita Jhunjhunwala, Rotten Tomatoes

"The Maze Runner doesn't have the cheeriest of presentations, but the film is able to be its own thing. And, for dystopian young adult novel adaptations, that's saying a lot these days."

- Cory Woodroof, Rotten Tomatoes

"Despite its familiar tropes, the film boasts a strong cast, numerous heart-in-mouth action moments, and a truly terrifying monster... making it a solid and thoroughly enjoyable little adventure story."

- Paula Fleri-Soler, Rotten Tomatoes

The Maze Runner is a 2014 American dystopian science fiction film directed by Wes Ball, in his directorial debut, based on James Dashner's 2009 novel of the same name. The film is the first installment in The Maze Runner film series and was produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, and Lee Stollman with a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin. The film stars Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, and Patricia Clarkson.

The Maze Runner was released on September 19, 2014, in the United States by 20th Century Fox. The film received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and tone. Critics considered it to be better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations. The film was first at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $32.5 million, making it the seventh-highest-grossing debut in September. The film earned over $348 million worldwide at the box office, against its budget of $34 million. A sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, was released on September 18, 2015, in the United States. A third and final film, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, was released on January 26, 2018.

Plot
The story follows sixteen-year-old Thomas, portrayed by O'Brien, who awakens in a rusty elevator with no memory of who he is, only to learn that he has been delivered to the middle of an intricate maze, along with many other boys, who have been trying to find their way out of the ever-changing labyrinth – all while establishing a functioning society in what they call the Glade.

Why It's Ready To Run

 * 1) Very original and interesting story. Because of this, the books have been favorably compared to books such as The Hunger Games.
 * 2) The set design for the titular Maze and the Glade look really cool and have very similar contrasting ideas. For example, the Glade is a peaceful place filled nature, populated by boys who have civilized themselves and is controlled by some form of law. The Maze on the other hand is a violent place made of stone and covered in ivy, populated by the horrible Grievers and unaffected by the laws of the Glade.
 * 3) The creature design for the Grievers is also very terrifying and spider-like.
 * 4) Faithful to the source material:
 * 5) *We get to see Ben's Banishment.
 * 6) *Thomas, Minho and Alby get stuck inside the Maze for a night.
 * 7) *Teresa appears with the note saying "She's the last one. Ever"
 * 8) *Gally is distrustful of Thomas.
 * 9) *Teresa arrives in a coma.
 * 10) The actors do good performances with Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Socdelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Ki Hong Lee being the best as their characters Thomas, Teresa, Newt and Minho.
 * 11) The film is perfectly paced at 1 hour and 53 minutes.
 * 12) With a name like The Maze Runner, you'd expect some good popcorn-and-icecream-soda-action: and it delivers. The movie has plenty of fun action with the Grievers attacking the Glade, the final battle and Thomas, Minho and Alby getting stuck in the Maze overnight being the best parts.
 * 13) Thomas, Newt, Minho and Teresa are all great characters that actually interact with each other and help solve the Maze.
 * 14) Good plot-twist where it's revealed that the Gladers and the Maze were all part of a test to find a cure for a disease called the Flare.
 * 15) Good dialogue:
 * 16) *Everything started going wrong the moment you showed up.
 * 17) * And the famous Maze Runner line: The outside world awaits. Remember: WCKD is good.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Gally is an unlikeable character, but he redeems himself in the third movie.
 * 2) Some differences to the source material:
 * 3) *The cliff leading to the Griever Hole is absent.
 * 4) *The heroes don't get picked up by the bus that takes them to the dormitories.
 * 5) *Chuck is shot, instead of being stabbed.
 * 6) *Thomas only beats up Gally in the third movie, but in the books, he beats him up seconds after he kills Chuck.

Critical Response
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes assigns the film a score of 65% based on 170 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's consensus states: "With strong acting, a solid premise, and a refreshingly dark approach to its dystopian setting, The Maze Runner stands out from the crowded field of YA sci-fi adventures". Metacritic gives the film a score of 57 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. According to Tim Ryan of The Wall Street Journal, critics considered the film better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations due to its "strong performances and a creepy, mysterious atmosphere".

Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film a three out of four and described it as "solid, well crafted and entertaining". Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com said she found the film intriguing, writing that "it tells us a story we think we've heard countless times before but with a refreshingly different tone and degree of detail". The Seattle Times's Soren Anderson said the film was "vastly superior to the book that inspired it" and gave it a score of 3/4. Tony Hicks of the San Jose Mercury News was "hooked by the combination of fine acting, intriguing premise and riveting scenery". Matthew Toomey of ABC Radio Brisbane gave the film a grade of A−, giving praise to its intriguing premise saying that "it held [his] attention for its full two hour running time". Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter said it was "consistently engaging", and Ella Taylor of Variety wrote "as world-creation YA pictures go, The Maze Runner feels refreshingly low-tech and properly story-driven".

Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post said "The Maze Runner unravels a few mysteries, but it spins even more", giving it a 3/4. Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote "it does leave you wanting to see the next installment. And that's one special effect that very few YA movies ever pull off". Isaac Feldberg of We Got This Covered awarded the film 8/10 stars, calling it "dark, dangerous and uncommonly thrilling", while extolling it as "one of the most engaging YA adaptations to hit theaters in quite some time." Rick Bentley of The Fresno Bee praised Wes Ball's direction, saying that he "created balance between a thin but solid script and first-rate action – and he doesn't waste a frame doing it". Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a well-acted and intelligent thriller/futuristic sci-fi romp". Bilge Ebiri of New York magazine said he "was quite riveted". Michael Sragow of the Orange County Register gave it a grade of "B" and said, "Ball is deft, though, at evoking claustrophobia of every kind, whether in the open-air prison of the Glade or the actual tight spaces of the Maze. And he elicits a hair-trigger performance from O'Brien".

Claudia Puig of USA Today said "a sci-fi thriller set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic future must create a fully drawn universe to thoroughly captivate the viewer. But Maze Runner feels only partially formed", giving it a score of 2/4. Time magazine's Richard Corliss said "like Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit-tentialism, but more crowded and with the musk of bottled-up testosterone". Wesley Morris of the website Grantland said "I think I have a touch of apocalepsy – excessive sleepiness caused by prolonged exposure to three- and four-part series in which adolescents rebel against oppressive governments represented by esteemed actors". Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film a 2.5 out of 4 rating and said "it's bleak business, and as it hurries toward its explosive, expository conclusion, the film becomes nonsensical, too". Film critic Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe said "teens should eat up this fantasy's scenery-chewing angst and doom, and the hopeful tale of survival and empowerment (to be continued in the inevitable sequel or sequels)".