A young boy is shown in a box and as he wakes up panics to his whereabouts, when he gets into daylight he then sees many other boys. A big problem though he has no memory before being in that box!
There’s no messing about with this film we are thrown straight into it, no back story we are with Thomas from the start as he enters a very strange surrounding and we soon find out that he is trapped in a maze. Runners go into the maze every day and they map it and try to find a possible way out. One problem is that the maze changes formation every night.
Thomas does not prove very popular with the other boys who are in the community as he is curious and does not behave the same way as everyone else. He wants to go into the maze and see what exactly is out there. As the only thing they hear about is grievers, but what exactly are they? Well it doesn’t actually take very long to find out.
Something I really liked about this film was that we had no idea who was in control and who put them all into the maze and the exact reason. We have to wait for them to figure it out and crack the challenge and test that is the maze to find out who put them in and why. Thomas has dreams but doesn’t actually tell anyone about them, but it turns out these are in fact flashbacks.
Everything changes for them the second Thomas turns up and it continues to do so as he quickly starts to figure things out. Even more so when Teresa turns up not only does she recognize Thomas (and vice versa) she is the only girl with a note that she is the last one ever. So another couple of twists to the tale and what are they going to do next?
I had been looking forward to this film since first seeing the trailer as looks in the similar mold to The Hunger Games and Divergent. I was not disappointed and thought it was really well put together and the story flowed very quickly for a film which is nearly 2 hours long. It wasn’t boring at anytime and builds the story up very well. It makes you want to know the answers, while your also trying to work it all out at the same time.
An interesting thing about Thomas’ flashbacks are that they look to be in some kind of lab with scientists and testing going on. But it doesn’t really make much sense how no-one else can actually remember anything before being in the maze set up! Although Teresa seems to have a small amount of memory as well, because she recognises Thomas.
I thought the maze looked very good and created good action sequences throughout the film. The way it started turning and closing looked very good, as did the grievers as well. So it has a bit of everything in that sense as well. It certainly leaves you wanting more and the second will be a little bit different when we find out more than Thomas and the others. So it will be slightly different seeing the next part of the story.
I would certainly recommend this film, as it is a good cinema experience and has some very good performances from the young actors involved. Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Love Actually and Game of Thrones) stood out for me and I think he is really showing his range as an actor. Dylan O’Brien in the lead role is very good and carries the film very well with a strong performance from start to finish.
