Tags
movie, review, reviews, science fiction, The Maze Runner, YA, young adult
The Maze Runner
Movie 1
genre: science fiction, dystopian, young adult
Usually, I tell people to read the book before the movie. Don’t read the book. Wait for the movie to hit NetFlix. If you’ve read the book, wait a week or two from when you finished reading until you go see the movie. The movie changed 70-80% of the book. I finished the book the same day I went to see the movie, so I sat there the entire time shaking my head with my brows creased thinking, “That’s not how that happened. That didn’t happen. That’s out of order. That didn’t happen. You skipped that. What the…? Why did you change that detail? What did that accomplish? What??? How? That didn’t… How are you going to finish the movie if you changed… you changed the ending…”
Review
It’s hard for me to assign a rating, so I’ll just tell you my thoughts and you can decide from there if you want to see it or not. The book is horrible. Read my book review if you want an expanded reason for not reading the book. The movie was different. It was better, but not very good. I’m not sure how I would feel watching it with more time in between finishing the book. They changed so many details, it was practically a separate story. Not as bad as Ella Enchanted the book and Ella Enchanted the movie, but close.
Boyfriend thought they spent too much time building up the suspense and not enough time trying to figure out the maze. I have to agree, but even when they did explore the maze, I was sitting there thinking, “That’s not the layout. That’s not how the maze works. That didn’t happen. That didn’t happen either. Wow, way to skip over that. That’s not how that played out. That’s not how that played out either.” Since I hated the book, you would think I would be happy with the changes. I’d have to watch it again with some time in between to know for sure and it’s just not a movie I would watch again though I am interested enough to go see the second movie… just not in theaters.
Trying to think about the movie by itself, it’s worth seeing if you liked Divergent. One of those “Well, that escalated quickly.” I was happy with the casting. All of the characters were portrayed in the same race as in the book, which I appreciated. Newt is the skinny kid from Game of Thrones!! That earned it one additional star, were I to give it a rating.
-Eliabeth Hawthorne
Ermilia 
My daughter loves the book, and not just because it has the skinny kid from Gamer of Thrones. Although that was what drew her to it in the first place. She has been lookign forward to the film, and may like it as she does like Divergent. From what she has been telling me of the book, it reminds me of a film I saw about a decade or so ago called The Cube.
I hope your daughter enjoys the movie!
I think she will. Apparently the GoT kid is her latest crush
He is pretty cute.
Not my cup of tea lol I prefer them a bit older and a different sex.
I definitely think people will appreciate the movie, in fact really like it, if they watch it before they read the book. Of course, the end was crap, but the rest was really nail-bitingly amazing.
It’s interesting that you didn’t like the end because it was the only part that I liked, book or movie. I think most will like the movie better if they haven’t read the book.
Books and films are two very different media forms which rarely sit well together, for reasons which will be obvious to the committed reader. I can count on the fingers of a blind butcher’s hand the films that are faithful to the books they arise from, and at the same time, faithful to the demands of the film itself. The difficulties I can understand, even accept. What I find impossible to understand is the way in which certain aspects of the book are distorted to the point of being nonsensical. I offer one film version of 1984 as a prime example, a film which ends on a note of hope, quite contrary to the ending in the book, and changing the entire meaning of the original written version to an unacceptable level. Or have I missed something? Am I just at that age when nothing, not even nostalgia, is what it used to be?
I would need to see the movie before I can comment on that though I absolutely love 1984, the novel. That and Brave New World. I think it comes down to audience opinion. Some movies, like Sweet Home Alabama, film two endings and pre-screen to see how people react. I’m interested to see if the third Divergent movie stays true to the book or plays to the happy ending crowd.