Movie Review : The Maze Runner (2014)

I don't really remember what it was like, being a teenager. I have memories of feeling alienated and angry all the time, but I can't relate to these emotions anymore, because I got over them. Somewhere in my twenties, I became an adult. Nothing make me feel old like some dystopian YA fiction, though. It makes me want to grab these feisty and soulful kids by the lapels an yell at them: ''See that dead-eyed adult trying to murder you? It's exactly who 99,9% of you are going to become. You're going to spend the rest of your days in an office murdering kittens with the push of a button, and trying to find happiness on Facebook wisdom cards.''

Some would say that I've lost touch with my inner teenager. Over the holidays, I've had to see THE MAZE RUNNER in a social situation, and it didn't go over well.

The movie starts when a kid named Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) is propped on top of an elevator and sent into a place full of teenagers called the Glade. Nobody really knows what they's doing over there, except that they're all standing in front of a giant maze that closes its doors every night, and that whoever has ventured in after sundown never lived to tell about it, so everyone's a little leery and overcautious about that place. Not Thomas thought. Of course, he is cut from that special cloth adventurers and heroes seemed made of, and he has no idea why because his memory has been erased. So you got a gang of kids standing in no man's land, facing a seemingly dangerous future they don't know and nobody knows nothing about anything. The only way to do so is to take risks.

Maybe isn't not such a bad metaphor for teenagehood.

Anyway, THE MAZE RUNNER is just not all that original of a movie. It's the third iteration of the dystopian YA making it to the silver screen (THE HUNGER GAMES and DIVERGENT being one and two) and it mindlessly follows the pattern: adults have caused society to collapse and refuse to take responsibility for their actions, so it's up to the kids to make a better future. THE MAZE RUNNER tries to be clever and play hide-the-pickle with the concept, but no experienced moviegoer is gong to bite: I mean, fearful, ignorant but virtuous kid facing a cold, mechanical adult-built contraption, what are the odds that it's going to be different from any other dystopian YA novel-turned-movie that came before?

Classic Dystopian YA themes is not the only thing THE MAZE RUNNER is playing hide-the-pickle with, by the way. I'm not going to spoil the ending, but it might want to make you drop to your knees like Charlton Heston in PLANET OF THE APES and curse out: ''Goddamn you, Hollywood. Ya fooled me again!'' I totally did. What a frustrating, unfortunately predictable ending it was.

''Guys. Guys. Are these gigantic mechanical spiders?''

''How original!''

''I know huh? Eat your heart out, Wild Wild West''

What THE MAZE RUNNER banks on to stand out is the actual maze. It's an obvious storytelling device meant to heighten the mythical aspect of the story. In Greek literature, Theseus had to fight the Minotaur to find his way out of the maze, and THE MAZE RUNNER banks on this concept, except it doesn't feature a dystopian retelling of the spiritual father of mixed martial arts. There is a pretty straightforward allusion to Plato's Allegory of the Cave in the movie, too. The idea that humanity is closing the circle and comes back to its myths of origins in a tormented future is pretty darn cool, but relying almost solely on a maze to illustrate it is pretty fucking thin. I do not know if the James Dashner novels do a better job at getting the point across, but the movie is a one trick pony built out of horny, good-looking teenagers and a freakin' maze. If there was any latent complexity to THE MAZE RUNNER, it eluded both me and movie director Wes Ball.

I've lost touch with the teenager I once was, but let me tell you something: dystopian YA fiction isn't even metaphorically representing how it was. At least not for me. Would have I identifies with the kids in THE MAZE RUNNER as a teenager? This is like, some kind of ultimate riddle for me. As much as I'd like to say no, I remember jonesing for anything that made me feel unique back then, and it's exactly what YA fiction bankrolls on, in general. I have to say, I'm a fan of THE HUNGER GAMES' movie adaptations, which I think are the spiritual successor to the Harry Potter series in terms of YA fiction that sends a coherent message to teenagers out there. THE MAZE RUNNER doesn't really send any message at all. At least not as a standalone movie. Because it was not made as a standalone movie.

Sigh.