The Maze Runner - Film Review

Wes Ball makes his feature directorial debut adapting James Dashner’s YA novel. It is a Lord of the Flies/Hunger Games hybrid that has the depth or tension of neither.
The action begins promisingly, with a cold opening of Thomas (Dylan O’Brien, TV’s Teen Wolf) emerging from an underground elevator into a picturesque but enclosed glade, with no memory of who he is.
We share his sense of disorientation. Surrounded by an ever-changing maze, pursued by lethal mechanical insectoids called Grievers, the movie gives little room for hope – or originality. 
The ‘Lost Boys’ cast of teenagers on the run is riven with clichés. There is the suspicious bad guy, the token fat kid, the super-special Chosen One.
Ball, a VFX artist, creates some exciting sequences as the Grievers hunt their prey.
However, the set pieces quickly become repetitive. So does the nonsensical, sequel-baiting Big Brother origin story, lifted straight from Divergent, The Hunger Games – or was it Ender’s Game?
Here’s to the next trend of YA horror: A Clockwork Orange-style torture tournament where we’re forced to watch these identical films on an endless loop, then identify the differences to survive. Spoiler: in that one, we all die.