Welcome to The Real World According To Sam! Today I am reviewing the first book in the New York Times Bestselling series, The Maze Runner. I am also reviewing the film adaptation of this book. That's right, this is another Cinematic Words post! I saw the movie once before, but don't remember much since it was so many years ago. Watching a movie after reading a book, even if you've seen the movie before, is also a new experience in of itself, truth be told.
The Maze Runner #1
The Book:
Author: James Dashner
Genre: YA Dystopian
Year: 2009
Synopsis:
If you ain't scared, you ain't human.
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He's surrounded by strangers -- boys whose memories are also gone.
Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It's the only way out -- and no one's ever made it through alive.
Everything is going to change.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
Remember. Survive. Run.
Review:
Well isn't that a cheerful synopsis? This is the first book in a trilogy series, that then received two prequel novels. This is a dystopian YA novel, so it is written for teens and it falls under the science fiction genre. I have been hearing about this series for years. Several years ago, when I was back in undergrad, I watched the movie. I only saw it once and I don't really remember it. Beyond that, I didn't know a lot about this series. My boyfriend came across a copy of the first two books in a Little Free Library and thought I might enjoy it. Since we have all been stuck inside for a while, I decided it was a pretty good time to catch up on some of the books in my personal collection and so, here we are. Let's talk about it.
The Maze Runner is told from the perspective of Thomas. He wakes up one day inside a metal box. He has no idea where he is or who he is. Others have been where he is before and they welcome him and help him get settled into his new life. Thomas is now a Glader. Why? Because he woke up in a place called the Glade. That is what the inhabitants of the area call themselves. They're all boys and none of them have their full memories. Some of them have regained a few through...unfortunate means, and that just serves to bring everyone more confusion. Each of them has a job and they're regularly brought supplies by an unknown source.
Outside of the Glade, there is a maze. The maze has been unsolvable and it is very dangerous. The maze is closed off from the Glade every night by large metal doors. Inside the maze at night, murderous robotic creatures are released that will sting or kill Gladers. No one has survived an evening outside the doors. No one knows why they are there, or how to get through the maze, but eventually circumstances force them to seek further answers and work harder than they have before.
Thomas seems to be a major key to the maze, but so does the mysterious girl that arrives. The only girl to ever arrive, whose name is Teresa. Helping them are some leaders of the Glade. These include Alby, Newt, and Minho. They have all been in the maze longer than Thomas and Teresa. Alby and Newt are basically co-leaders and Minho is the Keeper of the runners. A Keeper is a person in charge of a group of people that do a particular job. Runners...run. They go outside the doors, into the maze, every day. They run around in different areas to try to map it. They return by nightfall and compare notes, but so far haven't found any answers or escape routes. The Gladers must push themselves to survive, or they will definitely die.
As I mentioned, this book is completely in Thomas's perspective. It is written in a 3rd person limited point of view. What Thomas sees or knows, we know. This is a good perspective to have since Thomas knows about as much as we do at this point. As he explores and discovers things, we do the same. As a character, Thomas is pretty interesting. Or as interesting as a character with no history or memory present can be. He's confused, but nice to everyone generally. He wants answers to what has happened to him and pushes the others when they've grown weary of their struggle. He is a kind of catalyst for the eventual change that comes as they finally figure out some of what is happening.
The predominant supporting characters are also very interesting. Minho is sarcastic, but persistent. He helps Thomas a lot and encourages him. They make a good team. Newt is Alby's second in command. He tries to keep order among the Gladers and defers to Alby in serious circumstances. Alby is the leader of the Gladers. He and Newt are integral to introducing Thomas to the ways of the Glade. I liked all of these characters, as well as the others present. I liked Chuck. Gally wasn't really likable, but he did serve as a great source of conflict within the Glade. Teresa isn't too developed overall, but she has a solid role in this book.
The most interesting thing about this book is trying to find out why these teens are all here. As new information becomes known and more risks are taken, the mystery becomes more and more intriguing. I liked the setting and I liked the conflicts the book presented. I also like that the stakes gradually increase. When things seem to be progressing forward, a new wrench is thrown in to complicate it all. I liked the suspense. The tensions kept rising higher and higher, up through the end of the book.
Overall, I really liked this book. The main and supporting characters are all interesting, the conflict is intriguing, and the setting is new. I haven't read of many other settings like this so this felt fresh for me. I am really looking forward to reading and reviewing the next books in the series to see where the story goes. I give The Maze Runner a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯.
The Movie:
Screenwriter: Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, & T.S. Nowlin
Director: Wes Ball
Year: 2014
Rating: PG-13
Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster
This image and its copyrights belong solely to 20th Century Fox. It is believed that this image is associated with fair use as it is being used only to identify the film within a critical review of said film.
Trailer:
This movie is naturally adapted from the book we discussed above. The beginning of the movie matches that of the book. Thomas goes up into the Glade in a metal box, where he wakes up, unable to remember who he is. He isn't sure where he is and the story follows the same general trajectory.
The entire movie is about Thomas learning about the Glade, becoming a runner, and trying to find a way for everyone to escape the maze. The movie does an excellent job of adapting the novel and stays mostly true to the story. There are some very clear differences at some points, particularly towards the later half of the movie. A crucial plot point regarding two of the characters is not included, so I wonder how that will carry over into how the next movie is adapted from the second book. It seemed very important when I was reading it and it was strange to not see it present here. I'll mention that in greater detail in my review of the next book/movie.
By itself, this is a good movie. There is a coherent story, the actors all do a good job in their roles, and everything makes sense. The pacing is well-maintained. The movie is just under two hours long. It covers most of the important points that the book does, makes a few changes to some others, and does it all without feeling like a drag. This felt like just the right amount of time for this story. The ending has a twist to it, which might throw off some viewers to a certain extent, but this is the same ending as the book. People who read the novel first will recognize it and see that it is mostly accurate to what Dashner wrote.
Let's talk about the differences between the two. The movie trims off extra details from the book, without ever sacrificing the depth of the story and the heart of the characters. We do see some characters less, such as Frypan. We see the faces of other Gladers more in the movie, allowing us to connect with them more in some ways. In the book, we only meet the main characters and important side ones. There are a lot of background Gladers that are never really involved in the story beyond as...background. The movie lets us really see the Glader community as a whole. Additionally, Thomas has less orientation time in the movie. He gets a shortened version and has shorter time shown with Chuck. Nonetheless, you still see a connection develop between the two effectively.
Thomas's conflicts with Gally are for different reasons in the movie than in the book, and his interactions with him are shown differently as well. While different, I don't think this negatively impacted the story. Teresa plays a slightly more active role in the movie to a certain extent than she does in the book. We see Thomas sleep a lot less and therefore get to skip over most of his dream sequences or have to go through the "Thomas closed his eyes....next day!" routine. I love that movies can skip over some of the more mundane components that books require in order to set proper pacing for pages. It lets the movie flow more smoothly and quickly in a lot of ways.
The biggest change from the book comes at around the middle of the movie. The way that Thomas starts connecting things is completely different from the book. By the time there is a final plan made, the stories have completely changed how they reach that point. The way the climactic point of the movie is done is also very different. I'll mention how this played out differently in the next review, so that there are no spoilers here. The only way you find spoilers here, is by reading about sequels: sequel books, sequel movies, sequel episodes to an initial episode (basically any episode that occurs after a pilot is a "sequel" episode, in this phrasing).
In summary, this movie adapts the book well, but it does change a few things significantly. The way that a few things are done is different. I wouldn't say this hurts any of the story in either though. I think both are valid means. I'm not a purist about this and have long accepted that movies have to occasionally change things to keep a good pace and keep viewers interested for the full duration of the movie. The approach the movie took sped things up without taking away any of the important themes of the book, in my opinion. The core of the story is still told with only one detail that leaves me very curious about how things will be changed in the future as a result. This movie can easily be watched without having to read the book, with no confusion. I give The Maze Runner a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯. I liked the movie. While I didn't remember most of it from my first watching, I did like it relative to the book.
Thanks for reading another Cinematic Words review here at The Real World According To Sam, where I bring the books (and movies) to your computer screen and even put in my two cents about them!
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