The Maze Runner (film) Review

SPOILERS FOR MOVIE AND BOOK

I think this movie adaptation just proves that no book is safe from the cogs of what is "working" in Hollywood. Or that no movie is safe from cliches when its source material deviates so far from them.

I'll preface this review with this statement: had I never read The Maze Runner novel, I would have thought this merely an "okay" movie. It was, you know, decent, and I'll get into the nitty-gritty in a moment. But having read it, it's two sequels and prequel, I am disgusted at what this film has done. Not only did it ruin the shock value of several moments from it's direct sequel, but very well could have destroyed the ending of its final book and even devalued the entire prequel, making it essentially useless.

Thinking about it more, I realize what the movie has done, and the sin it has committed. Since all of those books are out, it decided, "Oh, let's leave little hints at what's coming up in our future films," since the makers already know what happens. 

Okay, geniuses, that's great, but don't ruin the endings. I mean, seriously. The ending of this movie, first of all, didn't want to end and ended on such a weird note, and second of all, it carries into the second book. 

To compare this to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, it isn't too great of an adaptation, and I understand that. But at least it follows the backbone of the series to a point. The way it is filmed, the "all-in-one" so to speak, you understand why they cut it off at different points. At no point are the movies intruding into another one; in fact, The Two Towers ends before it is supposed to in almost every story, picking back up in Return of the King. This film does the opposite, spoiling huge moments in the early goings of the second book and even nullifying the huge twist at the beginning. 

But enough of that for now. The film centers around Thomas, who has lost his memory after arriving in the mysterious Glade surrounded by nothing but boys and huge walls. Newt and Alby explain they are trapped in the Maze, an ever-changing, well, maze that keeps them trapped. 

Here's the first problem of the movie, something that drags on the entire time: it is all exposition. There are way too many questions being asked and answered that there is no time for us to care about any of the characters. At no point in this movie do I remember a character going out of their shell to change something, at no point in the movie do I remember a character growing in his, or her, self that drastically changes the story. Nobody grows up, everyone stays the same. The only big thing that happens is that they decide, "Okay, let's not be stupid about this." And even that takes forever. 

But to get to the point where they aren't explaining as much takes forever, but in a strange way, it whizzes by. It'll explain something, that isn't really answered fully, and then bounces to the next subject. It's like high school, you go to learns something but quickly have to go to the next subject, something that has relatively little to do with the other. 

Oh, and they don't explain to Thomas why he's not allowed in the Maze, they don't explain to Thomas the way things work in the Glade and the community they've established, and they don't explain to Thomas until he is directly affected by it what the Changing is. Way to go, guys. 

In the books, this doesn't happen, because it is all about the pacing. This movie takes place over three days. As we learn in the film, the Gladers have been there for three years. And in three days, everything changes and they figure out the Maze. It doesn't make Thomas look like a genius it makes the Gladers look like a bunch of idiots. In the book, that's not the case. Thomas spends a huge chunk of time learning what life is like in the Maze before becoming a Runner and seriously affecting things, and even more time when Teresa shows up to change the game even more. 

The movie does not stay on a single subject, like I said, for more than maybe five minutes. It's constantly moving for a reason I'll get to in a second. It throws things at you hoping you'll catch onto the rules of the movie as if catching a curve ball and never having played baseball before. The likely result? Getting pelted in the face. 

Luckily, the exposition in the early parts of the movie isn't wrong. The Maze is constantly changing and at night, these mechanical creatures come out and stalk the Maze. Runners go out to try and map out the Maze and if they aren't back at sunset, by the time the gets need to close, they're trapped out there and probably dead. Should someone get stung by a Griever (and given what they look like they're more likely to just die than be stung) they go through what is called the Changing, typically turning them maniacal.

We find that one Glader named Ben has been stung, oddly in broad daylight, and comes at Thomas, blaming him for what he's done and that everything is his fault. Ben gets banished and Thomas gets confused, so we get some more exposition and what not. 

When Thomas goes to bed that night he sees flashbacks of what appears to be a laboratory and a girl that are telling him "W.I.C.K.E.D. is good." Erm, sorry I should say, "W.C.K.D." because the movie is stupid and didn't want a real word. 

Oh and did you catch that, the whole flashback thing? Remember how I said he had no memories? 

He doesn't, movie! Thomas doesn't have any memories besides his name! That is the point of all this! If he can have flashbacks, why the heck doesn't he tell Alby and Newt that he is having these flashbacks, that he is seeing people experiment on them?! The Gladers are already well aware of the fact that they have been placed there, but it is never established, like it is in the book by the way, that they are aware of who put them there. Well, guess what ding-dong: you know! Tell them! Then, they'll be able to redouble their efforts into the Maze and be driven to find their way out and seek vengeance. 

I don't like this movie. 

In the book, the Gladers are of course searching for a way out because they want to get back at the Creators, who they know are watching because of these surveillance bugs planted all over the Maze and the Glade. In the movie...it's established once, at the end, that they were ever monitored. How stupid is this organization, one that apparently memory-wiped kids and threw them into a Maze, to not watch over them? An uprising would not be out of the question, you know. 

It's not about that, though, it's about Thomas's memories. See, in the book as in the movie, Thomas does go through the Changing. However, they are for very different reasons. In the book, Thomas undergoes the Changing to finally get his memories back, the ones that Teresa has been bugging him about, so that the two of them, with the accumulated information of the Maze, could find their way out. In the movie, he wants to find out if he's really the monster they say he is. 

Which is something of a humongous struggle for the character in the following two books, something we do not find out until after this one. 

Anyway, a girl named Teresa comes up in the Box and after that there are no more supplies, forcing Thomas and Minho into the Glade more to try and find a way out, since several Runners have quit after Alby got stung. For those of you who have read the book and are reading this, try to pick up what plot-thread I don't talk about here regarding Teresa, I'll let the rage build up within you. 

Thomas and Minho manage to procure a small little tube-thingy from a Griever, I'm assuming it's the heart. Grievers also look like Transformers, just so you know. Because people love Transformers, the last thing they want is for us to have interesting and creative monster designs. Anyway, they figure out through a figurine of the Glade (not the maps they'd drawn that are a huge plot device in the book) that the Grievers may just be coming out of a place in Section 7. 

Meanwhile, the girl wakes up and finds herself also without her memories, while Alby continues to go through the Changing, suffering every step of the way. Gally wants Thomas to pay for what he's possibly, maybe, nobody really knows done and is just being the jerk he's written as. 

Okay book readers, figure it out yet? If not, I'll tell you. 

Teresa is not telepathic. Are you kidding me? 

First of all, that was a huge surprise in the books. A telepath, that legit as heck. Her ability to communicate solely with Thomas during and after her comatose is what set Teresa apart from all the characters, it's what made her and Thomas unique. It established their bond, even a possibly romance between the two, and made them the figures of salvation for the Glade because of the power, and hidden knowledge, they possessed. In the movie, they aren't telepathic! Teresa is just as clueless as Thomas is! 

No way, man! Teresa is supposed to be someone who has a breadth of hidden knowledge about the Maze and gives little droplets of information out as it comes to her, almost as if programmed into her brain. Not only that, but the telepathy between Thomas and Teresa is a main part of the second book and part of the third. Having it not in this film is going to absolutely destroy the sequel's chance of taking off. How you do even go about the second book without telepathy? 

So that's two huge plot points they've messed up so far. Want another? Okay! 

Grievers attack the night Thomas and Minho go to the Griever lair (not the Griever Hole because the Cliff doesn't even exist). Several Gladers are killed and Alby with them...not like the heroic death he took in the book. Nah. Anyway, Thomas decides to take action, stabbing himself with a Griever in order to undergo the Changing. Again, in the book, he darn near sacrifices himself for this knowledge by charging into the Maze and taking a Griever on, getting pricked and then going through the Changing. He doesn't even go through it, he just kind of wakes up. 

And this is the part that nearly threw me over the edge. They show you everything, everything, that happened to Thomas and Teresa before they entered the Maze. They showed the experiments, they showed their participation with W.I.C.K.E.D., they showed the scientists. Everything that was a mystery about the Maze, about Thomas, about all that? Nope. 

That's what pisses me off about this movie. The book was an intelligent book, it kept you guessing and never told you the answers. Even when it did, you couldn't trust them because of what the Creators and W.I.C.K.E.D had done to the Gladers in The Maze Runner. It made sure you were interested in the truth and what the truth really was. The movie doesn't. To put it bluntly, the movie assumes you are an idiot. 

And it really feels that way. Rather than leave things up for you to figure out, it goes ahead and does it for you. "Oh, we wouldn't want you to think in a movie! That would be silly! Plot twists, who needs them? Oh, you want to know what's really going on, destroying the rest of the trilogy? Not a problem why worry?" No, movie, that is UNACCEPTABLE. We are your audience, so yes, we are there to be entertained. But we are not entertained when you take away the fun and the mystery. They overstepped their boundary when they showed Thomas having inherit memories, and took is a step further when they gave us all the answers rather than leave it a mystery as to what Thomas saw. 

The movie just guessed that we would be too stupid to put the pieces together. Just like a puzzle. Imagine having the outside of a puzzle completed, all because, you know, the outside is kinda easy. But then someone comes in, pats you on the head, and says, "Oh, no, it would cause you too much strain to do this, here, let me, the one who made the puzzle, do it for you." Well, then, what the heck is the fun in someone showing you what you want to be doing? They might be having fun, but it's at the expense of the one they are meant to be entertaining.

This is my biggest problem with the movie. Because it wants to fall under all these young adult, dystopic tropes, it assumes that it has and is approaching a much broader audience, one that has accepted these tropes. It sees itself as a movie that is there for a Friday night and teenagers to go to for their girlfriend for them to see popular actors or actresses in. 

That is not The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, or The Kill Order. Those books show what the terrors and rigors are of being put through a death experiment at the hand of a bunch of psychos trying to "save the human race." It is similar to Attack on Titan in this way. The Gladers are the reluctant heroes, willing to save the world and themselves despite insufficient leadership. They face unspeakable horrors and since none of them have their memories of what they've done that puts them in this spot, it is all the more mysterious why this is happening. All of the fun of this series comes from the plot twists as a result of us, the reader, slowly finding out more and more of these guys's memories. 

Not having it revealed to us in the first movie, not taking away the mystery and suspense. This movie, in one swift blow, has nullified any shred of decency it's sequel films will have. And I hate it for that. 

So, to continue on, Thomas gathers a group of reluctant heroes to charge into the Maze in leave. In the book, it's not so much of an option as much as it is do or die. The gates of the Maze won't close and, figuring that they have the key to leave, Thomas, Alby, and Newt gather all of the Gladers and they charge in to have one final showdown against the Grievers. Many people die and it's a tough battle. In the movie, maybe a couple of people die and it's really nothing special. 

When they go through the hole, they find themselves in a facility marred with dead scientists. They see that there is also dead bodies of some men who are dressed as something of soldiers. In the book, the kids arrive, Chuck gets killed by Gally as a final test, and then the Creators are gunned down and the kids are saved by a group of unnamed dudes, with Thomas getting warned of "The Flare." How's the movie mess this up? 

Well, the Creators are already dead and they watch a video of one lady explaining who they are and what the point of the Maze was. And then, we get a seriously hated part of mine in the movie: the ending. 

The lady talks about how solar flares raged across the Earth, torching several landscapes and wiping out millions of people. Those that survived got a disease called "The Flare" which turns them essentially into pseudo-zombies, and those are now roaming the Earth. However, those that are watching are "special" and are the ultimate cure against this disease. 

Movie, just...no. This is all explained in the first eight or so chapters of The Scorch Trials...but we are seeing it in the first movie! No! It even slightly hints at a humongous plot point that is revealed in the third book! You do not end this way, you don't end giving things away. How are they supposed to open the second movie? "Hey guys, guess what, zombies. Let's go and stuff." 

It's, it's just stupid. Anyway the team leaves and they find out that the Maze is indeed undergroud but that's acually a huge landscape in the middle of what appears to be a desert, which is ridiculously stupid for some many reasons. I've hated on this enough. Our movie ends with the lady who seemingly died resurrecting herself, saying that Thomas is the coolest kid in town and seeing the Gladers head into a city in a sequel I am not going to go see. 

I really don't like this movie. As a book adaptation it's as bad as they come, and as a movie it's decent if you're looking to see what you expect is a dystopic young adult movie. Is it dystopic? No, but it seems to present itself in that way and as such loses value there. I'll explain more of this subject on Monday but all you need to know is that if you've read the book, don't see this movie. And if you're looking to see a movie this weekend, go watching Guardians of the Galaxy. 

I'm gonna go watch Attack on Titan Season 1 Part 2 that I just got to detox all this away.