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The newest in the post-apocalyptic teenage adventure movie, The Maze Runner, sets the bar high as a well-written and well-directed film.

Your eyes are open. You’re lost, disoriented. Your own name is unknown to you. The cage you’re in rises quickly and panic sets in. Suddenly, you find yourself surrounded by strange faces. The sun is blinding after the darkness of your ascent and only one thought occurs to you: “Run.”

This is the beginning of The Maze Runner, a post-apocalyptic teenage adventure movie that adds something new to an overdone genre. For someone who hasn’t read the books, the direction behind the introductory scene seems especially clever.

You begin the film as lost and confused as the main character Thomas, played by Dylan O’Brien, stumbling into a peaceful version of The Lord of the Flies. The lost boys are surrounded by the Maze, a warren of untold dangers and shifting paths. With escape beyond reach, an ordered society has been created, sustaining itself through enforcement of three simple rules: Do your part, don’t hurt each other and never go into the Maze.

The movie falls apart for a bit after this introduction, attempting to create suspense by simply not providing explanations, even when honesty would prevent most of the initial conflicts. In fact, this seems to be the biggest issue with the movie. There is a great deal of un-needed secrecy and subterfuge that cause far more problems than necessary. They spend a large amount of the first day simply not answering questions, and later in the movie, characters simply don’t explain anything or brush off important questions without any further follow-up.

If there is one thing The Maze Runner does right, it’s the cast of characters. While the names can get a bit hard to remember due to the sheer amount of people in the movie, they are diverse without making a big deal about the diversity, and many are well developed and independently interesting. When the sole female character is introduced, they make a point of her being as tough and intelligent as any of the boys, and there’s no forced romance or awkward sexual tension to distract from the main plot. The casting has a way of making the movie feel more realistic, more plausible and, as a result, draws the viewer in.

There’s also the Maze itself, which seems to have a sinister and malevolent personality of its own. The monsters, which dwell inside it are the perfect combination of gross and terrifying, and the artificial intelligence that controls both them and the shifting confines of the Maze is both clever and adaptable. It’s a bit sad that the movie doesn’t delve any further into the mechanics of the Maze, although the gap makes it feel as though WCKD created their own version of Skynet just to mess with teenage boys.

Overall, The Maze Runner is a well-written and well-directed, but sometimes confusing, adventure in people doing exactly the opposite of what they’re told to do with many dramatic consequences. As the first instalment in a new series, it holds its ground as an individual movie and ends leaving the audience clamouring for more.