The Maze Runner

[andrews]

The Odeon, MetroCentre was full last night, with people being turned away. So, what were some 8 year olds doing sitting in the audience? I think they might have had nightmares last night.

I was disappointed in this film. The script was poor, though some of the special effects were quite good. The acting wasn't up to much either. I won't be holding my breath for the second instalment - 5/10

[stuartboy]

To me it seemed like a heavily edited abridged version of a much longer TV series. There just seemed to be so much missing - even to someone who hasn't read the books. So little character development. So much that could have been added. Still seems more like The 100 or The Tomorrow People to me.

[ejwrank]

I was disappointed in this film. The script was poor, though some of the special effects were quite good. The acting wasn't up to much either. I won't be holding my breath for the second instalment - 5/10

Agree completely. I thought this was awful. Wooden acting, terrible script -- and I will pass on Maze Runner 2.

[ladams888]

Saw this last night in a packed Wimbledon Odeon. I was expecting something like the Hunger Games, whereby we got to know all the characters and started rooting for them. What we got instead was basically a film-version of a computer game - with 3D scenery and one-dimensional characters. I never really understood why the kids were placed in the maze to start with, why the maze was built (it was the size of a large city and given the horrendous ecological problems on earth at that time, must have taken a high percentage of the GNP to build it) - it simply didn't make sense. Presumably they wanted to test kids to see who had the best survival techniques or who were the natural leaders – but to build this massive maze full of robotic spiders was simply not logical. Not having read the book (and not wanting to), I am probably critiquing the weak plot of the book rather than the plot of the film.
I was very disappeared with this dark (there was so little colour that it could have been filmed in black and white), depressing and meaningless film. It lacked everything that I enjoyed in the Hunger Games. This is a perfect example of a mediocre film being completed dwarfed by CGI. Take away the CGI and you are left with pointless drivel. Given the limited opportunity for character development, the young actors did the best they could but I won’t be queuing up to see the second instalment. 2/10 from me.

[LJMuppet]

I thought it was great.

Too many people were comparing it to Hunger Games before it was screened.

They are 2 totally different films/series.

Had you gripped from the start. None of the usual boring lead ups to something exciting. It was action from the opening scene

[raj101]

not on IMAX locally (Kingston), very disappointed.

[David]

To me it seemed like a heavily edited abridged version of a much longer TV series. There just seemed to be so much missing - even to someone who hasn't read the books. So little character development. So much that could have been added. Still seems more like The 100 or The Tomorrow People to me.

As someone who's read the first book, very little was missing. The film has the same flaws as the book. Intriguing setup but characters and plot are completely underdeveloped and the payoff at the end when we get some answers is beyond lousy. I thought maybe the film would try and build on some of the ideas but it didn't. None of it makes sense, its flimsy and cheesy.

[snowman2k]

Poor film, over hyped nonsense, what was the point of the girl arriving in the glade, the twist at the end was just wasteful and created no desire for me to sit throught the next film....4/10 just a bad B-Movie

[FBS]

I'm not a fan of these YA dystopia films - The Hungar Games, Divergent etc - but something really clicked for me with The Maze Runner. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Good action, interesting story. OK the characters weren't particularly interesting but it didn't put me off it. Would happily watch it again.

However, the stage managed ending was terrible.

[briar29]

Knew nothing about the book(s) and mostly enjoyed the film. For some reason it reminded me of the Saturday morning westerns I saw as a kid - A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do etc.
But the ending? The door they went through shouldn't have been marked "Exit" but "This way to the sequel" instead!