Well the same goes for Hollywood when it comes to making movies these days; why make something original when you can just reboot or re imagine a successful movie or franchise from back in the day. It's even trickled down to writers. The Hunger Games just completely ripped its idea from Battle Royale and The Maze Runner's author looks like he really loved Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Running Man; he was just smart enough not to include a Richard Dawson or a Jim Brown in his teenager version of his story, so that he can keep all of the revenue and not have to pay anyone any royalties. With that said, I have to admit that I also loved The Running Man as a kid so consequently I was secretly looking forward to seeing Runner.
In case you're not a 14 year old boy and you're not already familiar with the story, let me catch you up to speed. Runner starts off with our hero Tommy waking up in a speeding elevator that is shooting him upward and into an encampment ground. Once it stops, he finds himself stuck in a community of abandoned teenage boys who have all had their memories erased and are surrounded by a giant and dangerous maze. He is then introduced to the group's leader in Alby who shows him around, tells him all of the rules, and breaks down the Glade's (their nickname for the grounds) culture. Their main rules are for everyone to pitch in, to never hurt one another, and to never under any circumstance enter the maze unless you're a runner. And for a while everything is ok until a situation arises where Alby's life is in danger and Tommy decides to enter the maze to help save him. It's at this point when everything in their environment begins to change and they must decide whether it's best to stay in the Glade or to risk finding a way out in the maze.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by some of the fairly dark themes and events that take place in this movie. It was like a return to the 80's when PG movies had Gremlins killing old men or when old people were attempting to kill a little kid in San Antonio for his video game (Cloak n' Dagger). There's a random death scene at the end that seems a little unnecessary but I think that's more of a statement on our fear of the unknown and the desperate measures we will take to keep things simple and safe in our lives.
The Grievers are creatures that are planted all throughout the maze and they are there to take out any kid that dares enter it. They look pretty cool and Tommy's first night in the maze is fairly intense as he tries to avoid them. Thankfully the movie puts its focus there and not on some silly love triangle, but by judging from the amount of people that were in the theater that's probably what kept this movie from being the next Hunger Games or Twilight. I guess its always been that way though, I don't really remember there being too many girls in the theater when I went to see The Crow but the few that were there were definitely marriage material. Dammit! See I knew I missed my window!
I have to say that some of the CGI action scenes towards the end didn't really come out that well but I mostly attribute that to it being the director's first action adventure movie. Overall though I'd say that he did do a really good job with creating a suspenseful movie and I rate it as barely FRESH.
***spoiler alert***
Someone please explain to me why Alby had to basically suffer two gruesome death scenes! Just one death no longer cuts it for Black characters these days??? What's next, instead of teasers for the sequel at the end of the credits reel, they just decide to show the gruesome deaths of the Black character's parents too? My goodness.
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