THE MAZE RUNNER

I caught this sci-fi movie last week and was sure glad I knew next to nothing about the movie before catching it because I was really impressed by it. I didn't know the storyline and didn't know who were acting in it but after the movie, I was excited enough to go online to find out more about it.

Starring a pool of mostly teen actors Dylan O'Brien, of "Teen Wolf" TV series fame, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki-hong Lee, Will Poulter, Blake Cooper, Kaya Scodelario who was the only female, I hope this movie becomes a sleeper hit. The only actors I knew of are Dylan, who I really liked as a secondary character with his good acting and humour in the "Teen Wolf" series, and Will Poulter, who I seemed to recall playing the bad boy in movies such as "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader".

As with many recent movies, this is one of the movies of a trilogy. Written by James Dashner and published in 2009, this movie tells the storyline of a boy who woke up in a elevator cage from underground, with no prior memories of how he got there and what happened to him prior to the event, in an unknown place surrounded by a moving maze. He was one of many boys, known as Gladers, who woke up in similar circumstances monthly over a period of years with all necessities such as food sent up to them by their unknown captors with each captiive boy. The boys remained at the base camp because they couldn't find a way out of the maze, which changed configuration every night and which housed mysterious creatures known as grievers. Unlike all the boys before him who fell into their comfort zone following an established order and hierarchy of leaders and followers who run the place, Dylan as Thomas questioned their complacency, willingness and resignation in staying on in the unknown place held by unknown captors and created a series of events that rocked the community of boys who were divided by his actions. Suddenly, there was a change in the captors plans who eventually sent up a female, who only recalled Thomas' name and with a message that she was going to be the last one.

This set forth a chain of events which caused the grievers to be unleashed and attacked the community in broad daylight and prompted the group to be split. Thomas' unyielding determination and curiosity drove him to seek out a way to escape the maze and with his leadership and new found friends and supporters such as Alby, Newt, Minho, Chuck etc, finally made their way out of the maze only to find themselves to be guinea pigs of an experiment of a group known as WICKED (World in Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department) from a dying world who tried to find a cure for a deadly Flare virus, and thrust into an unknown future to be revealed in parts two "The Scorch Trials" and the finale "The Death Cure".

i am so looking forward to the sequels.

the boys looking at the maze which shifted in daylight

Thomas, Minho and Chuck

Brenda and Thomas

Minho and Thomas running away from the changing maze

Minho and Thomas running back to camp

the three books of the trilogy

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER

I have never read a single book of The Chronicles of Narnia series although I know of at least 2 friends who read the fantasy series of 7 books.

'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' is the 3rd movie I watched on this series after 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' in 2005 and 'Prince Caspian' in 2008. However, I have no intention of reading up on the books and prefer to watch the movies with a fresh mind so that I would not compare the movies and the books.

The characters Lucy Pevensie (played by Georgie Henley) and Edmund Pevensie (played by Skander Keynes) have come a long way and have grown so much since the last 2 movies. Peter Pevensie (Wlliam Mosely) and Susan Pevensie (Anna Popplewell) have a very small role in this 3rd instalment.

In this movie, a new character Eustace Scrubb (Will Poulter), the Pevensie's cousin, was introduced. He was so irritatingly good. Yes, there is no mistake in what I wrote. He was such a whiner and snob but the young actor's acting was so naturally convincing and excellent! I was most impressed by this character in the movie and I was told that his character would be appearing in the next film.

I suppose it is inevitable that there would be comparisons between this series and the Harry Potter movies. Due to its religious allusions, I am not surprised that it is not as popular as the latter which is somehow darker and which is coming to an end come mid 2011. Anyway, a link on this movie series is as shown below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(film_series)