Very gritty and atmospheric, pretty good writing

Rating: 8/10 (7 June 2015)

This is a 2014 movie which runs for 106 minutes (without credits) and throws the audience right into the action. We see the protagonist being thrown into an entirely new world and together with him, we explore what is going on. Actually, we never know more than the characters do and I liked that. Discovering the maze and the area where the boys live was a pretty great viewing experience in my opinion. The group dynamics were fascinating to watch (friends, foes, runners...) and one reason for this was that all the boys who were major characters looked pretty differently. That made it a lot easier to understand who is who and what each one of them was like. Talking about the maze, the idea that it constantly changes is not new, but it worked well in this scenario. This was a very atmospheric movie. Another thumbs-up for making it work. The location is pretty much the same for the entire film and it's not too easy to keep it from getting repetitive, but they did. There aren't any really famous actors in here (unless you count Oscar nominee Clarkson), but that's not needed. It's all about the script and this one is definitely a success.
It's only the first feature film for the director and the writing staff also wasn't experienced at all, so it's certainly a positive surprise that they came up with something so good here. I am definitely looking forward to their next projects. But lets also not forget the novel writer. About "The Maze Runner", there will be a second film coming out in roughly 3 months and a third in 2017, also based on the literary works of James Dashner. Still, I have some minor criticisms. I don't think the girl added as much to the film as I hoped she would, even if she was extremely hot. They certainly could have made more with her storyline. Maybe some inner conflicts within the group. I mean nobody was even horny and they didn't see females for years. I thought the way Thomas was almost treated like a Jesus and how he becomes the leader of the group after a couple days only was slightly too heroic for my taste. And I liked the first half more than the second. Basically when their quest to freedom really gets going, the film gets a bit worse, maybe also because it focuses more on action sequences and fights against the grievers. I am also not entirely sure what to think of the ending. It's not really clear if the other people outside were good or bad. Before Clarkson's character shoots herself (or did she?) it looks like they were good which would also make sense if Thomas was one of them as they said several times near the end. But Clarkson's character appeared again at the end and there she seemed evil. We will see about that in the next movie. With the ending this film has (friends and foes die), it was obvious already when they made it that there would be more movies. I hope the next ones will be equally good again as the first half of this film here. I enjoyed watching "The Maze Runner" and highly recommend it. One of 2014's finest.