Circle game

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2015)

I normally watch these "Young Adult" adventure movies when child-minding my almost- teenage niece Erin and so, having previously watched the first two "Hunger Games" films with her at my side, she unsurprisingly recommended this film for us to watch on her most recent stay.
It undoubtedly helped that I'd thus already been initiated into the whole bleak post- apocalyptic vision-thing as yet again the focus is on a group of youngsters forced to deal with a seemingly no-win scenario imposed on them by adults which sees them out in the wilds confronted this time by a monster-maze which offers their only escape although it comes, naturally with its patrolling nightmarish killer-creatures the Grievers to provide the expected SFX fight sequences.
Unlike "The Hunger Games" where the plot exposition is made clear from the start, the twist here is that the viewer is thrown into the middle of the action just like the initially amnesiac kids with the purpose of their task only explained at the very end, just handily in time to trail the inevitable part two (Erin tells me there are four books in the series so I'm guessing quadrilogy here).
I understand the movie was pitched by its producers as "Lord Of The Flies" meets "Lost" which neatly sums up the plot. The young actors playing the leads are all unknown to me which I think helps with the credibility of the narrative. To me it seemed as if the delayed entrance of the young girl to the group seemed more like a device to broaden the movie's appeal across the sexes (there were no girls in "Lord Of The Flies") but even after she arrives she doesn't seem to contribute much but maybe she gets her "Catniss" awakening further down the line.
I was perhaps most impressed with the maze structure itself, a massive hulking monumental construct full of dark foreboding and the child in me was naturally pleased when the gang finally got to the end, although not before the rather predictable leadership conflict in the group and various scrapes and scares with the marauding Grievers.
Relatively unsentimental, action-packed and with just enough depth of character throughout, I again found myself quite happily sitting through another film I'd not normally have opted into. Whether I ever watch any others in the series will probably depend on my future availability as a "baby-sitter", although on the strength of this I might just volunteer my services when the opportunity arises.