With The Maze Runner, another young adult sci-fi tale of survival is played out to sparsely thrilling and all too familiar results, proving the popular genre has run its course.

It’s all starting to look a little too familiar in YA land, isn’t it? It’s the same old reluctant hero, with the same old destiny, surrounded by characters with the same old weird names, stuck in the same old dystopian world, run by the same old credible actress in the same old pants suit.

The difference with The Maze Runner is, well, a maze. A huge freaking maze that surrounds an outdoor prison where teen boys do time for (supposed) crimes they have no idea of, since their memories have been erased.

The latest new fish (or “greenie” as referred to) is Thomas (Dylan O’Brien). The film’s first scene is his awakening to a nightmarish situation, trapped in a cage rapidly ascending to who knows where, with no identity, no memory and no purpose.

Soon he becomes a part of a community of teens all in the same situation he’s in. There’s Alby (Aml Ameen) the leader of the group, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) the British boy who dispenses with the relevant info, and then there’s Gally (Will Poulter) the enforcer and stickler for the rules.

For Thomas the maze is a curiosity that quickly becomes an obsession. It’s not only a way out, but a way to the truth. Soon he joins the group of designated “maze runners”, whose job is to explore the colossal labyrinth of steel and changing gears that’s inhabited by monstrous creatures. Anyone who is stuck overnight does not survive.

It’s when inside the maze that The Maze Runner truly comes alive. Director Wes Ball (in his debut) has a knack for the foreboding, with a very good handle on thriller and monster movie elements. In fact had the film been set solely inside the maze itself, it could have been quite a good chase/monster movie/adventure mash-up.     

But alas, this is an adaptation of a young adult sci-fi novel, and straying from the text is a criminal offence in the eyes of legions of young devoted readers. Problem is there is nothing on offer that holds interest. Characters fill a type, but have no depth. A conspiracy mystery is teased throughout, yet anyone who has seen Divergent or The Hunger Games knows exactly what these revelations are.

And then there is Thomas himself, about as bland a hero as they come, played by Dylan O’Brien with hyper wide-eyed jitteriness, asking the audience to be on side of his pursuit for the truth, yet undeserving of such support since he isn’t an interesting character, nor is O’Brien a screen presence of any kind.

Innovation is needed to separate these young adult adaptations from one another. Wes Ball is no doubt a talented filmmaker, yet he’s handcuffed by the limitations of the films source material. There are two more novels left in The Maze Runner series. Here’s hoping the blandness stops here.