I think The Maze Runner was a pretty good movie, but just an okay adaptation. I rate is 8.5/10 stars. I'll start off with what I did like. The casting was great. I felt Dylan O' Brien was a perfect Thomas. The cast was a lot more diverse (less white people) than typical YA movies so that was pretty awesome. Thomas is also a lot more likable. In the book he was annoyed me a lot and was just too angsty while he was less so in the movie. Speaking of angst, this was quite the angsty movie. But I liked that. The movie seemed a lot darker. I read the book for the first time last week and while reading I didn't feel like it was as brutal, actually seeing everything play out made me realize how dark it actually is. The banishment scene freaked me out and seemed so primitive. I also really liked how the Glader slang was toned down. In the novel, it's very "in your face" which would have been confusing in the movie for those who haven't read the book. Another change they made that I liked was that they took out the whole telepathy thing. I think towards the end there was a scene with telepathy but it was only hinted at. I didn't think the telepathy made sense in the book but I haven't read the rest of the series so it might be explained in those books. In the movie, less time passed. I think Thomas was in the Maze for 5 days max while in the book he was there for two weeks. It made a lot more sense, translated to film, to do that.
Now onto what I didn't like. The characters were lifeless. They had more personality in the book (not that much more), but aside from Thomas and Minho, the characters were really flat. There were also quite a few plot holes. It didn't really make sense to me to not have the medicine to save people stung by Grievers until the end. The Changing is what justified Gally's hatred toward Thomas so in the movie it seemed quite random. Also, I didn't see the point of saving Alby. In the book it made sense because he could have been saved. However, in the movie it clearly stated that whoever was stung would die. At that point, the medicine hadn't been introduced so Minho was pretty much dragging Alby back to the Glade to die when it made more sense to just abandon him and save himself. Because of this, it also didn't make sense for Thomas to try and save Alby. Prior to that scene, Alby and Minho went to trace Ben's footsteps. What was the point of that? He's obviously going to be dead so it made no sense. I also didn't like how the Cliff was taken out of the movie and how easy it was to escape. What I liked about the book was how they got out of the Maze. It was so badass in my head but the way the scene played out on film failed me. Also, where the hell did Gally get a gun in the end and how the hell did he even get out of the Maze? And finally, why did Thomas and the other Gladers trust the people who took them away so quickly? They didn't offer any explanation for their actions... There were more plot holes but I don't remember the rest. Aside from the plot holes, I really enjoyed the movie and I definitely recommend watching it.
~Hana
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