Movie Review: The Maze Runner is Lord of the Flies meets Lost with an excellent premise

IMAGINE a latter-day Lord of the Flies fused with a discarded plot line from TV’s Lost. If you like the sound of that, The Maze Runner is bound to get you in.

The Maze Runner (M)

Director: Wes Ball (feature debut)

Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Will Poulter, Aml Ameen, Kaya Scodelario.

Rating: ***1/2

Imagine, if you can, a latter-day Lord Of the Flies fused with a discarded plot line from TV’s Lost.

If you like the sound of that simple pitch, The Maze Runner is bound to get you in.

There will be no escape, either. Not at least until all four entries in author James Dashner’s hit series of young-adult novels are in the can.

This punchy first instalment does not waste any time putting its easy-to-follow premise through some serious paces.

It all comes down to The Maze Runner’s undeniably attention-grabbing opening act.

A young man wakes up in a caged elevator hurtling rapidly upwards. When the clanking finally stops, a steel grill is prised open, and the lad is lifted out.

Dramatic scenes ... in The Maze Runner.

He looks around. Surrounding him are hundreds of other boys, all in their mid-to-late teens. Beyond them are four huge concrete walls, forming the boundaries of a closed space which will become known as The Glade.

Outside The Glade — and accessed by a small door which can only be opened during daylight hours — is The Maze.

Someone, somewhere, has dangled the chance of a way out of The Glade. But there is a catch, of course. The Maze cannot be accurately mapped by anyone who enters it. It changes in configuration on a daily basis.

How about a second catch? The Maze is patrolled by a vicious squad of biomechanical monsters called Grievers. These metallic sider-like beings do their best-worst work at night.

Looking for a way out ... Dylan O'Brien on the set of film The Maze Runner.

Anyone who dares enter The Maze to research a possible escape must be back in The Glade by sundown. Nobody has ever survived an evening with the Grievers.

Make no mistake: this is a fascinating setup that lives up to most of the potential promised.

Upon the arrival of the newcomer Thomas (Dylan O’Brien, star of the FOX 8 hit series Teen Wolf), an entrenched tribal system that has governed life inside The Glade — and guaranteed the survival of those who stick to the rules — is challenged for the first time.

The noses that Thomas puts out of joint in The Glade are many and varied. It could be argued that first-time director Wes Ball spends too much time charting the familiar (and often violent) conflict inside the walls, when so much unfamiliar business is happening just outside them.

However, the delay to get deep inside The Maze — and finally sample its sinister, shapeshifting properties — proves to be worth the wait.

Originally published as Movie Review: The Maze Runner is Lord of the Flies meets Lost with an excellent premise