Many, many years ago I wandered into my local bookshop looking for something interesting to read. I spotted a book by an unknown (then) author titled “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, which I purchased on spec. In bed that evening I decided to read a chapter or two before going to sleep. But in the wee hours of the morning I had finished the entire book.

Likewise, before seeing this movie, I decided to read “The Maze Runner”, and again I lost sleep finishing the book in one gulp.

The Maze Runner is faithful to the book’s sleep-depriving scenario. The protagonist Thomas (O’Brien) arrives in The Glade with almost total amnesia – all that he remembers is his name. He discovers that The Glade is a society of amnesiac teenage boys. Each month a new amnesiac boy arrives.

A key supporting character is the intelligent second-in-command Newt (Brodie-Sangster). And there is Gally (Poulter), the bully with an apparent partial recall of meeting Thomas before.

The Glade is surrounded by mighty walls. Behind the walls is an ever-shifting maze infested by monsters; but the maze is the only way to escape. Every day boys run the maze, futilely seeking a way out. But the twisted routine of The Glade is upended with an unprecedented arrival – that of a teenage girl, Teresa (Scodelario). Why is this so? And how will this affect their already confused lives? Only one way to find out.

The latest film from Australian director Fred Schepisi stars Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche as rival schoolteachers who compete to determine whether words or pictures are more important.