The young adult audience is enticed again as another popular book is launched into the cinematic world. “The Maze Runner” is another action-packed, apocalypse inspired thriller based off of James Dashner’s book series.
Starring Dylan O’Brien (better known as Stiles in MTV’s “Teen Wolf”) as Thomas, “The Maze Runner” brings a similar twist between “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” with a life threatening sequence of survival, friendship and rebellion against an exterior force.
The motion picture begins with Thomas waking up to a small scale land amongst only boys, wiped of any memory and stranded in the center of an ever-changing maze just like the rest of the boys.
The Glade, led by a trio of older boys, Alby (Alm Amee), Newt (Thomas Brody-Sangster) and Gally (Will Poulter) quickly became home to the boys since they were sent there one by one every month for the past three years.
After he becomes closely acquainted to the Gladers and is accustomed to their lifestyle, Thomas takes interest in how the maze operates upon realizing that he may have something to do with the reason that they are all there.
Thomas overcomes challenges no Glader has ever endured and proves himself enough to the leaders to become a Runner. A runner is a person who navigates the maze and tracks its ever-changing course to find an escape route.
Once the Creators send the last person and only girl to ever be dumped into the Glade, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), and declare there will be no more, the Gladers finally realize that they need to escape the maze before they all die.
The film then takes its course through its unpredictable journey in escaping the unique labyrinth and the electrical, spider-like creatures called “Grievers” it encompasses. The end of the film leaves a captivating cliffhanger to introduce the next sequence of Dashner’s trilogy, “The Scorch Trials,” which is already under development and is expected to be released in September 2015, according to the Huffington Post.
For the dedicated readers of “The Maze Runner,” the film may be considered a hit or miss as far as the parallels between the screenplay and the book.
As the main plot and most major events in the movie remain the same, there are some key details in the setting of the Glade and how it operates that were not included in the film.
However, the depiction of the Glade itself and the population of the boys it contains are accurate, including the Grievers.
The concept of what a Griever is was hard to understand in the book, however, director Wes Ball did an excellent job in depicting what Dashner described in the series.
The main characters are developed well and synchronous to the way they are depicted in the book. However, some key concepts about the maze and how it is operated and visualized is different in the film from how it is described in the book.
For dedicated Maze Runner readers, do not criticize the movie too much for being different from the book; it follows along well with the flow of the story with extra suspense to make it more appealing to non-readers.
“The Maze Runner” brings a new spin to the dystopian society that many young adult sci-fi fans appeal to.
Although the film is one of the many books that have been brought to life through film, it has proven itself worthy to watch as it is held as the number one in the top box office and has currently made 32.5 million since its release date on Sept. 19.