Another Double Review Spectacular- The Maze Runner and The Judge

Before I start, I'll just adress the elephant in the room. I'm not reviewing Gone Girl because it's an 18 and contains scenes in which a character uses a wine bottle to [CENSORED] and also has a scene in which someone is [CENSORED] during [CENSORED]. Family fun time all round. Anyway, Gone Girl has been replaced by The Judge. Let the review commence.

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner is the latest in a long and ever increasing line of young adult book to film adaptations and as such is a difficult film for me to review. For a start, I am the target audience. While I may be fairly film-wise, I am in the age range of 12-18, go to the cinema and have money. The other problem is that I read and liked the book before the film and the whole series is at it's best when there is mystery. I read the books and knew everything that would happen before hand and because of this, I feel the film may have lost something for me. Regardless, I'll try to review the film, not the franchise.

The film opens with the main character being sent up in a lift to this place called the Glade. It's a nice enough area. Green spaces, huge bloody great wall around it and rugged wood huts. Oh yeah. The wall. Well, turns out that the boys in the Glade are in the center of a maze. The only people who really know what's in the maze are runners. The backstory is explained fairly well so I won't go into it too much but it's basically a case of character arrives, is "the one", everything changes. Nothing that won't be familiar to anyone who has seen or read any YA dystopian fiction novel/film but still a neat concept. All the characters are played well, apart from Theresa. While she didn't do a bad job, she just seemed to be spending the film deciding if she had a British accent or not and that kind of detracted from her performance. But yeah, the whole cast did a good job and while the characters didn't look like I had imagined them, they played the characters so well, I can't see them as anyone else now. This could be a huge career boost for some of these guys and it would most certainly be a deserved one.

Something I'd like to point out is that this film had pretty impressive CGI, especially for a YA film. Like, The Hunger Games had pretty poor CGI (I don't think we'll ever forget those awful fire effects they used) but the effects in this were all really good. The shots of the maze looked good, some of the more technology stuff that's a bit spoilery looked nice and the enemies in the maze looked geniunely creepy. While I wish they could have gone further and really utilised some of the vivid descriptions from the book, they had the restriction of a 12A and worked with it, making something that looked nasty and effective. They just did good with what they had and what they did was great.

One of the many problems that I've seen other people have with the film is it's ending and general plot. This is hard for me to comment on because I read the books. For example, many people have said that (SPOILER ALERT) the ending made no sense because you don't know where they go, it makes no sense that those people would stage an attack e.t.c. But having read the books, I know why these things happened. What's more, the problems people had with the script are all problems that were there in the book. On the plus side, this shows it was a pretty faithful adaption. Which it generally is. Although the lack of the cliff and some of the events that occur later did annoy me.

On the whole, The Maze Runner was a pretty good film. It had good action sequences, good acting and good CGI, even if it dragged on a bit by the end. I would recommend this if you're a fan of YA films but if you don't like them, this won't give you anything new. What it does do is do these tropes well. That's why I'm giving The Maze Runner a

The Judge

This film is going to be one I will remember seeing as it has the honour of being the first 15 I have ever seen at the cinema. I know, how sweet. I'm just glad after watching this that I get on with my Dad. Anyway, this is a film in which Robert Downey Jr plays not an action hero yet still Robert Downey Jr. It's sweet, quite charming and not many reviewers seem to be liking it. But I do and here's why.

As I said, Robert Downey Jr plays a super cool and suave lawyer dude who gets called back to his hometown after the death of his mother. He ends up getting involved in a mystery over whether his dick of a father (played with grace by Robert Duvall) ran someone over in his car. It's basic and fairly interesting to see the twists and turns but it is just a vehicle for some superb acting. Downey Jr is a star as ever. He proves that he can do serious courtroom dramas and family issues just as well as he can do multi-billion budget action films and I have a feeling that he could be up for another lead actor Oscar, his first since Chaplin. Robert Duvall is also great. His character is meant to seem pretty nasty for most of the film and he pulls it off well. The emotional scenes were top notch and I found myself tearing up more than a little bit. All the other actors did great jobs. Credit to the guy who played Robert Downey Jr's autistic brother. His role was one that was tender, raw and subtle enough to be damn near perfect. Good job guy.

There are a lot of other really nice bits about the film. I liked the slightly creepy romance storyline, the occasional injection of humour and the soundtrack. It was used in a way that meant the soundtrack didn't ever take focus and there were also no recognizable songs on there but it added something to moments that wouldn't have been as present otherwise. There were also (slightly pretentious critic warning) some really nice shots of landscapes and dramatic type moments. It's a film that's undeniably artsy but it feels like a gateway artsy flick. First this, then Her and before you know it, you're a huge fan of Amelie *shudders*. But seriously, this is just a film is interesting, enjoyable and one you should really watch.

All this said, there were some problems with this film. For a start, and this is just a small problem, there were some moments that felt like poorly executed greenscreen. I don't know if it's because I had just come from The Maze Runner but there was the odd bit where Robert Downey Jr would be driving in a car and it just looked fake. Could just be me, could be a genuine problem. Either way, it irritated me. And one problem that I had and has been felt by many other reviewers was that the film felt a bit too long. Others suggested taking out the romance sub-plot but I'd disagree. But something should be cut because I just felt a little bit bored by the end. It also felt like it was trying to end in about three separate occasions. I liked the ending, don't get me wrong, but I just felt lied to. Either carry on the film or bring it to a close. Don't do both at once.

All things considered, I would have to sat that this film is a good one. An Oscar film? Maybe but it's come out a bit early. The acting is great, the plot is good and while it can occasionally feel lacking, it was always a good watch. That's why The Judge gets