The Maze Runner

Dystopian Young Adult fiction is all the rage. Sparkly vampire romance is out, kids dressed in rags trying to survive is in, and that’s cool with me. Although as much I enjoy dystopian sci-fi, “The Maze Runner,” like “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” before it, is just another so-so entry in the teenage wasteland genre. Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) wakes up in elevator cage going up. He stumbles out into a pasture surrounded by a giant maze and a bunch of teen boys in full “Lord of the Flies” mode. There’s even a token fat kid! They live in what they call “The Glade,” and everything’s hunky dory except for the maze that surrounds them. Thomas wants to explore it, and nothing’s is going to stop him—except when a girl shows up. There’s three more books in the series, so you can count on three more mediocre sequels.