Maze Runner

Actors:  Dylan O'Brien, Aml Ameen, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, and Ki Hong Lee.

Rating: 8 out of 10, This is apparently another one of those “young adult” series of books cloned from the DNA of the Hunger Games.  I was pleasantly surprised by the flick which was well edited and boasts a plot that keeps the action and tension taut enough to ignore the obvious inconsistencies and plot holes. The story revolves around a group of teenaged boys thrown into the middle of a maze with their memories wiped out. The door to the surrounding maze opens each day which allows the boys to explore before nightfall when menacing robotic creatures called “grievers” wander the maze to kill. This was an updated take on the Lord of the Flies with the millennial youth doing much better with their isolation than their predecessors, or so it appears on the surface.  The movie is carried by the young cast, especially Dylan O’Brien in the lead role, who was so good in last year’s The Internship. This kid’s got a real future, someone to look out for.  I know this movie was aimed for the young fans of the books (if the teenybopper mutterings from the last row of the theater were any indication) but the film got my attention as well. I really liked this movie.

MVP:  O’Brien as Thomas the central character who easily carries the movie