With young adult books being all the rage, The Maze Runner is another movie adaptation to add to the stack. This time our protagonist is Thomas, a young man who wakes up in an ascending elevator. At the top, he’s greeted by a group of other young men in what they call the Glade. At this point, Thomas doesn’t remember who he is and how he got there. He soon finds out that all the other guys have the same exact story.

Now, the Glade is relatively small grassy area with some trees surrounded by a gigantic wall on all four sides. Everyday, an entrance opens up that allows the “Runners,” those that are deemed strongest and fastest of the group, to go into the maze to see if there is a way out. If you’re not back by dusk when the doors close, you are never seen from again. There are…things in the maze.

So there are tons of questions flying around your head about this world. Who, what, where, why and wtf? I went in knowing nothing about this movie and I think that’s why I liked it so much, so I’m not going to get into any more detail than I already have. There are a lot of cool ideas going on, a lot of the questions are answered and a whole mess of new ones are added by the end (of course this is a trilogy of books. There are 4, but the last one that was released is a prequel).

The entire cast is young and I didn’t find a weak actor in the bunch. One of my favorite, Kaya Scodelario, best known from the show Skins, is in this (side note: Dear casting directors, please give her more work, she rules). I found a lot to like here, it’s really well made with some great action scenes sprinkled about and perfectly paced.

Of all the young adult adaptations coming at us, I ignored this one along with Divergent. I was pleasantly surprised with The Maze Runner and I’m down for the sequel this year. There’s a lot of lore built into this world that I want to learn more about. I’ll probably check out Divergent soon to see how it stacks up.

I was not a fan of the last Hunger Games movie as you can see right there. Thankfully, Mockingjay – Part 1 turned out much better. It’s quite a bit different, but everything still rides on Jennifer Lawrence’s very capable shoulders.

At the end of Catching Fire, Katniss pretty much put an end to The Hunger Games with one final act of defiance. She gets rescued, but Peeta does not. Everyone thinks he’s dead until he appears on Capital television as a tool for propaganda to try and quell the dissent for the government that is spreading.

Mockingjay, the first half at least, is much more of a political movie than an action one. There’s a lot of push and pull as Katniss is again thrust into the spot light as the mascot for the resistance. The Capital pushes back hard at every step for freedom and the weight of the slaughter of innocent lives weighs greatly on her. Jennifer Lawrence is easily the best part of the movie, she’s able to control the emotional pitches and rolls with great skill. Good to see some characters returning (Elizabeth Banks as Effie in particular, she adds some much needed levity to things). The movie is pretty narrow, there are very few locations, and it mainly sets up the finale (which should be huge). Was it necessary to split the last book into two movies? Probably not, but the box office numbers show that the studio has been greatly rewarded for doing so.

Catching Fire really turned me cold to the franchise, but this entry has brought me back. Looking forward to them bringing this one to a conclusion later this year.