The Maze Runner

                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
          
Every aspect of a persons life can be defined in one way or another. Something like high school days, college days or marriage years are obvious categories. But for me being the pop culture/nerd and sport fanatic that I am, my years will be most remembered by this stuff. Today, iPhones by Apple are the most popular phones and social media could not be bigger. I sadly had to watch Lebron James make it to four straight NBA finals appearances and the biggest trend in films now seems to be dystopian society themes with kids living on their own, kids facing conflict, kids fighting kids and kids killing kids. It can be a very interesting subject matter.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
There are many reasons why this subject matter in movies is interesting and makes money. First, all of these movies are based off books. These books have a fan base and have sequels attached to them. If the movie has a nice box office run, the studios are surely going to want to do some sequels. Second, the source material has already been put together before the movie is made so the filmmakers do not have to invent a plot.

What seems forgotten about this certain genre of film is it very dark. This involves kids living an adult life and often with some criminal intent. In real life, these kids are not of the proper age to be doing these types of things but that seems to be thrown out the window in these movies.
                                                                                                                               
In The Maze Runner, Thomas (Dyaln O'Brien) wakes up inside an elevator with no idea of his name or identity and he is eventually taken into a society in what seems to be the near future. The society is led by teenagers and the physical boundaries of this society are marked by a giant maze. The maze has many mysterious things about it and some could ultimately be be the key to getting out back into the real world or it could be the death to all of them.  

In terms of the characters and the depiction of the society, The Maze Runner is all over the place. The acting is not a problem and considering the young cast, this makes it even better with some fresh faces. We know none of where these characters come from, their background or why this society has no woman in it. I would compare it to the The Host, another young adult novel based film that is also  set in a dystopian world and has the same flaw. How in the world does a society like this survive? How are these kids getting food? Where is there waste being disposed? That said, the movie does provide an original ending that shapes this film into being sort of creepy but still leaves the story wide open.             

Obviously, the biggest thing to this film is the maze itself but this is really also what slows down the film. The maze sets up the atmosphere of the film throughout and it's the maze is what keeps us thinking and pondering how it will shape the characters and their society. Once the characters do get inside the maze though, close to nothing happens in substance but the action scenes are still intense and special effects here are pretty effective. Still, I wish there was a better payoff once inside the maze. I bet the payoff will be bigger once the inevitable sequel comes along which has been announced for next September.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                   

Surely I would have loved more details about The Maze Runner and also wished it wasn't so up and down but the movie does have more positive then negative parts to it. Comparing  it to  the other trend films of this genre like Hunger Games to Divergent, The Maze Runner will no doubt be the least remembered. The film also really needs a sequel to give us answers to some of the questions raised near the end of the movie and this would also make this first installment better. In the end, The Maze Runner is A Lord of the Flies type inspired dystopian movie that feels like it's could have came out during the 80's and that's not a bad thing.

3.5/5        

Divergent

After the success of the first Harry Potter movie that later that spawned a very successful series of movies or the Twilight movies that made big money off the " teenage vampires and humans in love" theme, it has become more and more common each year for the studios to look for successful teen novels that could spawn a film series. It does come at some risk though as a film like Vampire Academy from this year was a bomb and critically panned followed by a cancelled series. This was a prime example of a film based on a teen novel-based film that didn't quite work and there are other examples.

Being not a reader of the Divergent book series, I was clueless as to what Divergent was all about. Based off the popular teen novel written by Veronica Roth, Divergent is a three part trilogy with two spin-off mini stories on e-books. In total, this series could be possibly five films and by judging from strong box office from it's first week, you wonder what kind of money how much a movie series like this could make or how long it could last.

Based in the future in a dystopian society in Chicago, Divergent's setting is a world where everyone is put into specific factions based on their own virtues. Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) learns that she is a "divergent", an extremely rare condition in which a person can't be assigned due to one faction because she has the attributes of many factions. Divergents are considered threatening by the government because they are free-thinkers who cannot be controlled by the government. Later after Tris puts herself into Dauntless, a faction of people based on courage, it becomes evident that the main faction leader Jeannie Matthews (Kate Winslet) is planning to kill any divergent that they can identify. Tris must find herself, fight her enemies and learn to survive all at the same time.

Like The Hunger Games and other sci-fi films, I am always interested in seeing a dystopian society if done right. Shot in Chicago, this dystopian setting offers real some cool shots of the city including Navy Pier and Michigan Avenue. Most of the film interior sets are placed in what seems to be abandoned warehouses which gives the film a different and hollow atmosphere. This dystopian society of Chicago is enclosed by a big wall and it seems as if this government wants it's people to be held up within the walls forever. The movie gives no hints as to why the city is walled up or what is beyond the walls and you really would hope a sequel will give some type of explanation on this. Still though, the setting here is a strength of the film.

With yet another correlation to Hunger Games, rising star, Shailene Woddley works as the young adult lead who's trying to rise up against this society and who you do root for. Her instructor for Dauntless, Four Eaton (Theo James) is both a mean and likable character and a romantic relationship eventually develops between the two. The chemistry between them is not there at first but it eventually falls into place. Peter (Miles Teller) is the mean member of Dauntless and you can say the only cast member who brings humor to the story. Divergent has a big cast filled with a lot of depth and emotions from the characters.

Where the idea of "training" as Hunger Games was only a small aspect of that movie, one of the main themes of  Divergent is training. The training is often brutal as we see many people trying to get into Dauntless who did not get to a certain level and then were thrown into the streets. Much of the training is people fighting one on one and further you are tested on your fears. For example, to even enter the training building, you have to jump down a big hole in a building where you do not know what is below.

Unlike the Harry Potter movies or The Hunger Games, this is a much more dark film based on a teen novel. The overall tone is quite dark with a suicide and an attempted sexual assault depicted among other things. This might not be some of the most fun things to watch but it does add variety and possibly brings a slightly different audience to Divergent than some of the other teen films mentioned earlier.

Divergent can be very long and also tiresome at points. It also has some lack of originality but there is still a lot to like here. Treat Divergent as another version of The Hunger Games, then it works.  

3.5/5