Seen on our own in a cinema in Kunming, China
Bea says: While I
was in the cinema watching this, I remembered either reading or hearing a
review of current films, which talked about one release as being so
ridiculously derivative that if you’ve seen any films at all over the past 20
years, you’ll spend the entire screening distracted by what it reminds you
of. And although I didn’t know it when
we decided to see it, this is that film.
It’s Lord of the Flies! It’s Labyrinth! It’s The
Beach! It’s The Matrix! It’s Memento!
It’s The Hunger Games! Need I go on?
I am not sure, though, if this film’s target audience would have these
reference points.
So – that probably explains the genre, which is fantasy
based, young adult, coming of age. The film
is adapted from a novel, and the story centres on a group of boys/young men,
who for reasons unknown to them have been sent to an “island” of sorts – a
piece of land surrounded by a complex, ever-changing maze, filled with
dangers. They need to survive, and also
to try and find their way out of the maze.
Every month a new boy arrives, and none (or few) of the boys have any
recollection of who they were before arriving.
This month it is Thomas, our story’s hero, who quickly upsets the
established patterns of the boy on the “island”, setting in chain a series of
events which lead to both danger and death for some, and liberation for others
As fantasy stories of
this genre go, it’s actually not bad – as a story, if not particularly
original. It’s interesting to think
about how similar this is to traditional coming of age rites that young people
would have done – finding your way home from an unfamiliar place was, I think,
a common coming of age ritual in tribal cultures for example. Survival skills and the importance of
remembering patterns and symbols in the landscape is also important in this
story. I found the section of the film
that deals with remembering the maze one of the most interesting bits. It deals with social structures and how these
can be created and then changed, and the need for maturity in managing these.
However, the fact that these themes made it into the film
seemed almost accidental, as if the screenwriter and director had never
actually read the book, or cared about it.
What they appear to have done instead is to rewrite every scene from a
film they could think of that related to these themes, and cobble them together
into a new film. When they ran out of
ideas or got worried it was too boring (about ¾ of the way through) they put in
a silly CGI sequence that adds nothing to the plot and nearly made me leave. I’m glad I didn’t – there is some good
story-related stuff afterwards! I am
also not sure what the point of the arrival of the girl was – she had barely
any scenes and was quickly relegated to the role of “nurse”!
I’m not sorry I saw it, as I would now like to read the
book, and I am interested in what will happen in the inevitable part 2
(although I might read the book for that too!), but, really, have some original
ideas please!!
**
Cecil says: The
most gripping moment in this film for me was when a guy on a silent scooter
rode into the auditorium about half way through and freaked us out for a moment
as we were watching this film completely alone and we wondered why he chose to
sit at the end of our row in an empty 500 seater cinema…
Trouble was I didn’t really care about any of the
characters; I found the ethnic mix tiresome and contrived by some committee
deciding on the politically correct casting, not to mention the key role played
by the overweight kid (which felt like another
have-to-show-fat-kids-can-contribute moment, though Bea tells me a character
like this was key to the story in Lord of
the Flies); and as for the puny, pale English actor who turns out to be one
of the strongest characters in the tribe, it just felt like poor casting, or
designed to appeal to those who like a pretty face.
Bea is right, the only other pretty face in the film is the
‘girl’ sent in half way through for no apparent reason and without any real
importance to the plot.
Ironically, given how little I cared, it was the ending
which intrigued me most and made me curious as to how they continue the story
in Part 2, so if I’m stuck somewhere like China again with no other English
language film showing, I may even watch the sequel…
**
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