Young adult dystopian futures are sooo hot right now. It's been interesting that the biggest franchises are female-centric. It's a nice change from the history of damsel in distress stories. Unfortunately it's not that much of a change as the overall stories are still filled with cliche. That's unfortunate for me, but I'm not the target audience. The young adults out there experiencing these stories for the first time probably think they are mind blowing. Like me when I first saw Explorers.
The Maze Runner is the most recent YA dystopia, but with a twist. A male lead! JK, kind of. The main twist of Maze Runner is that you don't know what the twist is. Which makes it more interesting. There's nothing like a good mystery to make me overlook sappy dialog and illogical behavior.
Thomas, our main protagonist, wakes up in a valley with no memory of how he got there. He's surrounded by boys of various ages and soon finds they are effectively trapped in the valley. They all share the same story of how they arrived - waking up with no memory. Some have been there for two years. The boys have formed a functioning society with strict rules of behavior. They are trapped in the valley by rock walls, which open during the day but close at night. Beyond the wall is a maze, which is only explored by the boys who have been designated as "runners." Populating the maze are half mechanical/half living tissue monsters that sting, infecting the boys with a virus kinda like rabies.
Thomas immediately starts messing things up for the little village of boys. He doesn't like the rules, nor the level of acceptance he see in the boys and their situation. Thomas wants out. Of course he'll eventually find a way.
The Maze Runner is engaging for its mysterious setup. There are clues dropped throughout as to who put them there but very little info as to why they are there. This setup makes the movie more engaging than the other YA material that's been released recently. I liked it much more than Divergent and maybe a little more than Hunger Games. But I spent most of the movie complaining. I especially hated the one guy that was hellbent on keeping the status quo. To a certain degree I understand him being upset. But his actions at the end made 0 sense. Despite all that complaining and my annoyance at character behavior, I absolutely want to see the next movie.
First Viewing: 2+2+2+2+2 = 10