The Maze Runner
The Maze Runner is the latest movie in the now vogue young adult series of best selling novels that we have seen pop up over the last few years.(Hunger Games, Divergent, etc…)
The story begins as Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) arrives to a prison-like camp known as the “Glades” full of teenage boys.(Think a more civilized Lord of the Flies.) Each boy there arrives the same way(on top of an elevator lift) and none of them can remember much of their past life. Everyone is assigned worker roles so that the community can sustain and the boys can survive while trying to find a way out via a huge Maze which closes and changes every day.
Assigned “runners” go in and out of the maze every day trying to map out its contents and find a way out. They must return before the maze walls close or suffer the grim fate of being killed by spider like creatures known as “Grievers” which guard the Maze at night.
Life at the Glades changes rapidly once Thomas and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) show up a mere few days after each other. Besides being the only girl to ever arrive(which I still have no idea why), we find out that Teresa seems to know Thomas. They both think and behave a bit differently than the others(in a rebellious/curious sort of way) which thankfully moves the plot along.
What ensues next is an all out race for survival and a plethora of unanswered questions leading us to the obvious sequels to come.
Director Wes Ball (A Work in Progress) does a nice job with the action sequences and hair raising travails of the Glade’s inhabitants, but I found the overall storyline less than appealing and flat out confusing at times. (Maybe it’s intended this way for the upcoming sequels, but I found it quite frustrating.)
This is one of the movies that the teens will love and the adults may cringe. A 6 out of 10 Stars.
