REVIEW OF THE MAZE RUNNER

year: 2014 rating: ***

A busy hybrid of CUBE, NO ESCAPE and even KING KONG… plus all those dystopic-future adaptations like THE HUNGER GAMES and DIVERGENT… THE MAZE RUNNER doesn’t waste any time, beginning with the main character, whose own name he remembers later on… Thomas, that’s it… being “delivered” to a group of young male teenagers straight from a LORD OF THE FLIES survival wasteland… Only it’s not each other their fighting, but a giant maze that, noisy and formidable behind a massive wall, changes with each and every night...

Much of the time's spent with the group of boys – and eventually one girl – trying to figure out what’s on the other side: a dangerous portal that only a select few, deemed Maze Runners, can try figuring out...

With a secret past and "gifted" beyond the others, Thomas becomes the unspoken leader after a while. He has to butt heads with the more stubborn minded of the lot, providing a few other characters to be somewhat fleshed-out. Although this MAZE mostly relies on two guys avoiding and/or battling a herd of partially robotic spider creatures that, while looking neat in a retro STARSHIP TROOPERS kinda way, don’t live up to the hyped discussions outside the wall… The beasts (called Grievers) should be smarter, more cunning, or something! Racing in one ear and out the other, this action-packed jaunt is worth the price of a ticket, although you might feel duped once the fortress innards are revealed – at least until part 2 comes along, which, based on a collection of novels, young readers have already devoured: leaving the old timers to... as the saying goes... "Wait for the movie."