Boys die for nothing on deserted 'island'

A popular post going around Facebook right now asks people to list 10 books that have made a lasting impression on their lives.

Near the top of my list was the classic, dystopian novel "Lord of the Flies," by William Golding. The book about adolescent boys stranded on a deserted island is a brilliant study in the depravity of human nature and the consequent bankruptcy of anarchy and even pure democracy as viable social systems. Though brutal and violent, I consider the book required reading for my upper level students.

So I was delighted to notice the similarities in this weekend's biggest movie, "The Maze Runner," which also deals with adolescent boys stranded on an island, of sorts, and contains so many parallel elements to "Lord of the Flies" I assumed the caged pig, the sweet, little, fat boy and more represented a clear homage to the classic novel.

Unfortunately, "The Maze Runner" mimics much of the violence and bloodshed of the novel, but fails to really deliver the same point. In fact, I've had a very difficult time discerning what the point of the movie was at all.

The story is built on a group of boys who are thrust, one new boy each month, into a community of teens living on an oasis of green in the midst of a massive, stone maze. Each morning, boys run into the maze in hopes of discovering a way out, but they must return by nightfall, for the maze closes and monsters lurk within to eliminate any stragglers who haven't made it back to the oasis.

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The film reminded me a bit of a reality TV show, in which the contestants are thrown into an artificial survival scenario, where they're "picked off" one at a time until only a few remain.

On the plus side, the dialogue, characters and acting in "The Maze Runner" are captivating, the timing and suspense well crafted, and it's certainly more rewarding than the tripe and backstabbing common to reality TV. The plot is quite a bit more complex than my brief summary above, and it's more than enough to sustain an interesting film.

On the down side, at least on reality shows the audience knows what's motivating both the contestants and their "captors" on the island – we know they're both after money.

In "The Maze Runner," however, we're not really sure what's motivating the lead character, and the captors are even more nebulous. It leads to gaping, unexplained questions and plot holes.

At one point in the film, the lead character is even asked – point blank – what his motivation is for coming to the oasis.

Shockingly, however, the lead character answers, "It doesn't really matter."

The other boys agree it doesn't really matter, and then the movie moves on.

As an audience member, however, I nearly cried aloud in protest! No, it absolutely matters, and the filmmakers have no excuse for just leaving the audience hanging like that.

Speaking of leaving you hanging, the ending of the film is clearly just a set-up for the sequel and leaves even more questions gapingly open – a wholly unsatisfying and, frankly, depressing finish to what was otherwise a gripping drama.

And despite the practice of reviewing movies for the their worldview for more than three years now for WND, I still have no idea what "The Maze Runner" is really about.

Is it a rallying cry to fight the system and claim the rights of every free man? To resist tyranny under the law and champion freedom?

Or is it just a nihilistic, fruitless exercise that suggests none of us can really escape "the man" or the rat race he has us running?

Honestly, I think the point was supposed to be the former … but it felt a lot more like the latter.

I think people left my theater more depressed than impressed with "The Maze Runner."

My wife and I went out and bought the book immediately afterward, just to see if the author made more sense of things than the moviemakers did. Frankly, that's what I recommend you do, too: Skip the movie, read the book ... or better yet, consider whether you're ready to read a classic like "Lord of the Flies."

Content advisory:

• "The Maze Runner," rated PG-13, contains roughly 20 obscenities and profanities.
• The film contains almost no sexuality (unlike "Lord of the Flies"), save for a few scenes with a shirtless male.
• The movie is brutally violent, however, as several characters fight, others are slaughtered by the maze's monsters and there are plenty of battle scenes. Vomiting, disease and murder are depicted. The audience is spared enough gore to spare the film an R rating, but there's enough action to consider it a thriller/horror film.
• There is no significant spiritual or occult content, though the supposed villains of the film, a group with the acronym W.C.K.D., essentially brainwash their victims with the mantra, "W.C.K.D. is good." It suggests a clear twisting of morality, but doesn't really formulate a spiritual message.