Anthony G Williams
Greybeard
The Maze Runner is another "young adult" film although probably appealing to a different, more male, demographic than The Hunger Games. It is based on the eponymous 2009 novel by James Dashner.
A young man, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) regains consciousness with no memory of who or where he is. He finds himself in a group of other male adolescents, all of whom have arrived in the same way. They are living in the Glade; a large enclosure, big enough to support buildings, crops and trees, but surrounded by massive, impenetrable and unclimbable concrete walls. During each day a section of wall opens to allow exploration of the enormous maze of similar walls which lies beyond it; but the walls keep reconfiguring themselves making it impossible to learn a way out. And no-one caught in the maze when the opening closes at nightfall is ever seen again, but the sounds of monsters – Greivers – can be heard roaming the maze.
Thomas is not satisfied to accept the status quo and joins the Maze Runners, the fastest and fittest among the group, who venture into the maze each day to try to find a way through it. Meanwhile, the situation of the adolescents becomes increasingly perilous as the rules which have governed their lives begin to change, leading to conflict within the group.
This is a better film than I had expected: more original, darker in tone and more gripping than most YA fare, with the gradual unravelling of the mystery at the heart of it intriguing adults as much as the target audience. While this particular episode ends with the film, there is clearly much more to be resolved with the conclusion blatantly teeing up a sequel. So it's just as well that the film was a commercial success, with the next episode due to hit the cinema screens in the autumn. I will be looking forward to it with rather more interest than I am to the final part of The Hunger Games.
(An extract from my SFF blog: http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/)
A young man, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) regains consciousness with no memory of who or where he is. He finds himself in a group of other male adolescents, all of whom have arrived in the same way. They are living in the Glade; a large enclosure, big enough to support buildings, crops and trees, but surrounded by massive, impenetrable and unclimbable concrete walls. During each day a section of wall opens to allow exploration of the enormous maze of similar walls which lies beyond it; but the walls keep reconfiguring themselves making it impossible to learn a way out. And no-one caught in the maze when the opening closes at nightfall is ever seen again, but the sounds of monsters – Greivers – can be heard roaming the maze.
Thomas is not satisfied to accept the status quo and joins the Maze Runners, the fastest and fittest among the group, who venture into the maze each day to try to find a way through it. Meanwhile, the situation of the adolescents becomes increasingly perilous as the rules which have governed their lives begin to change, leading to conflict within the group.
This is a better film than I had expected: more original, darker in tone and more gripping than most YA fare, with the gradual unravelling of the mystery at the heart of it intriguing adults as much as the target audience. While this particular episode ends with the film, there is clearly much more to be resolved with the conclusion blatantly teeing up a sequel. So it's just as well that the film was a commercial success, with the next episode due to hit the cinema screens in the autumn. I will be looking forward to it with rather more interest than I am to the final part of The Hunger Games.
(An extract from my SFF blog: http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/)
