trapped

Rating: 7/10 (18 March 2017)

More than the trite Divergent or po-faced Hunger Games franchises, The Maze Runner strikes the right note of adventure and earnestness for a teen fantasy-adventure movie. A group of teenagers find themselves deposited one by one in a mysterious glade enclosed by a huge maze. In the three years that they have been there, the have learned that escape is impossible, and entering the maze at night means certain death. Then Thomas arrives, and challenges all their carefully constructed rules, some of which have taken on sacred value for some members. Very few iterations of Lord of the Flies get it right, but the young actors in Maze Runner are plausible, and the running, jumping and rolling between closing walls and crashing edifices is tense and thrilling. There is good balance between action scenes and character-conflict scenes, with judicious dashes of comedy. Sure there are some plot holes, but nothing that has you throwing popcorn at the screen. It even gets away with a moment that is usually unforgivable, an ending that shamelessly sets up the sequel. Good fun for teenagers of all ages.