Another YA adaptation, y’all! Well, I’ve read the book before watching the movie version and had even reviewed it. Unlike the book, I do like the movie though.

The Maze Runner is about a group of boys called The Gladers who were stuck in a middle of a maze. Thomas, the protagonist of the story, was the latest addition to the Gladers. And like the others, he had no recollection of who he was before with the exception of his name. But he did have strange dreams of an organization named WCKED, whom he was apparently a part of. Eventually, what he thought were just dreams were actually real memories of who he was before he was in the maze, when a girl named Theresa was sent into the maze and recognized him. Together with Theresa and some of the boys, they tried to find an escape from the maze and the killer creatures hidden in it, the Grievers.

The movie adaptation of this best-selling YA novel is like The Divergent. The Divergent movie and book were quite different from each other and the same goes for this movie as well. What I didn’t like about the book was curse words that were made to be more innocuous but were very glaring to me because, honestly, if you want to use the word “fuck”, please just use the word “fuck”. Another thing I didn’t like about the book were some parts which were draggy to me and not necessary. Also the mind-reading between Thomas and Theresa. I didn’t know how they were going to put that ridiculous ability into the movie but I was really glad that the director decided to just omit this from the movie altogether. Like The Divergent, what made some parts of the story ridiculous in the book were made more believable in the movie. The movie made the story more concise. And I was super glad about it. Otherwise, the movie would have flopped in my eyes.

What I also like about the movie was the Griever. It’s not necessarily what I had in mind when I was reading the book but it was not something hate either. The Griever was like a Predator-looking, machine-operated spider slash scorpion and really creepy. I would not want that thing near me either.

The plus point in this movie was Dylan O’Brien. I was excited about the movie partly because I really wanted to see him play anything other than the sidekick Stiles in Teen Wolf and I’m super glad that everyone else could see the talent I’ve seen from this guy. He’s amazing in this movie. The ending was so much more emotional than what was written in the book and I’m pretty sure it was partly due to the talent that is Dylan O’Brien.

Other than Dylan O’Brien, the rest of the cast were also amazing. I love Ki Hong Lee as Minho, exactly how I imagined Minho to be and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt was not exactly how I thought to be but I really do not mind. This guy has immense talent and I really want to see him on the big screen more often. Aml Ameen’s Alby was also less mean and more supportive and personally, I love this version of Alby. But he was no less strong than how he was written in the book. He’s exactly how I thought he would look like.

This movie is such an action-packed one, full of surprises and shocking elements. You would love the ending of the movie. If you’ve read the book, the ending in the movie is going to be different from how it was written in the book but it was not a bad take. I actually like the movie version better than the book. It makes it a little bit more shocking.

I give this movie a 3.5 out of 5.

The trailer…