The Maze Runner

The maze in the title is a fun spectacle full of shifting walls and weird spider robots. When the movie is in the maze it is good. When it's out of the maze, it kind of stinks. Dylan O'Brien plays Thomas, a teenager transported to a camp surrounded by a large, constantly shifting maze. The camp is inhabited by other teens, including Alby (Aml Ameen), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Gally (Will Poulter). They are all clueless about why they have been put there and how to escape, but they do send a squad of “runners” into the maze to map it out and search its outer reaches. The searches are fruitless until the mysterious Thomas takes charge and makes things happen. The mystery of the maze is intriguing, but the payoff is blah. The Lord of the Flies drama between the leads is typical, boring stuff. I liked the design of the maze, and the maze turns out to be the film's most interesting character. Second place goes to Poulter, who is a long way from the comic territory he staked out in We're the Millers. Too bad the rest of the movie feels like a patchwork of many movies before.