good start for yet another YA franchise

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2015)

Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) is unconscious in an elevator as it opens up onto a field. He has amnesia and surrounded by other kids. He remembers his name later but nothing else. A new boy arrives every 30 days with supplies. It's been 3 years since the first one. The forested field is surrounded by a giant maze. They sent out Runners to map out the maze and set up rules to only allow Runners into the maze. There are deadly Grievers in the maze during the night when the doors are closed. Thomas keeps disobeying the rules and run into the maze. He kills one of the Grievers and makes some discoveries. Then the only girl Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) arrives on the elevator with a note "Shes the last one EVER".
This is better than many of the new YA movies. Why? The first thing I noticed is that the movie doesn't open with a lot of explaining the dystopian world. I like it. The characters are just as clueless as the audience. We are essentially discovering the world together and I usually hate the homework these movies impose on us every time.
The acting is pretty good led by Dylan O'Brien. The kids' society is a little bit of Lord of the Flies. I like most of the kids. The maze is good although I couldn't really figure out this place. It felt like there are some miscalculations about this dystopia. Something isn't adding up. When the final message happened, that didn't make sense either. And then there is the reveal which simply put a big question mark on everything. I haven't read the books. I'm willing to wait for the sequel to pass judgment on whether this all adds up. So it's a 7 for now, but if the sequel doesn't make better sense of this world, the rating may have to go down.