The Maze Runner: Movie vs. Book
The Maze Runner is a story told in the point of view of Thomas, a boy who wakes up in a metal lift with no knowledge of anything except his name. When Thomas reaches the top and enters the Glade, he’s met with a group of boys just like him, memories gone, and four giant towering walls surrounding him. Each wall an entrance to an ever-changing maze filled with flesh eating Grievers. After Thomas sets foot into the Maze everything changes, someone survives the night in the maze, a dead Griever is found, and the box with supplies stops coming every month. Then, the first girl arrives, and she remembers Thomas. The Glade is in chaos, with more and more people claiming to remember him. As Thomas starts to run the maze every day, he starts to discover secrets, secrets about its creators. One night, the doors to the Maze don’t close and the Gladers must race against the clock to get out before the Grievers get them.
The movie and book version of The Maze Runner followed two almost completely different paths. The movie version was really rushed, with lots of details missing, and some of the characters weren’t as impactful, or meaningful like they were in the book. The girl, Teresa especially seemed useless. In the book her and Thomas had a more explicit connection and she sort-of contributed to the plot, but in the movie, she just annoyingly stood there and wasted everyone’s time. I really disliked her character in both the book and movie. The biggest difference in both was the method of escape used by the Gladers. This led to a lot of the details and plot aspects of the book to be changed or dropped. On the other hand, the movie did a better job portraying the emotion of characters during death scenes. The movie also made the characters much more amiable, unlike the book where most of the boys are rude and impatient. One thing that both had in common was the story’s confusing ending. I haven’t read the rest of the series recently so maybe it’s explained later, but if you only plan on reading the first book you might want to reconsider. This comparison just adds to the universal fact that movie versions of books are always much worse than the book. Thanks for reading!
- Bridget
Holy moly this is so relatable. I have not read the Maze Runner or watched the movie but I think it is the worst when movies do this. They just completely change the plot and the characters. I feel the exact same way about the Hunger Games book/movie. I guess you just can't fit as much into a movie as you can into a book. Ugh, why do they even go through the trouble of making a movie? The things desperate, failed hollywood directors will do for money. Post is well written and totally voices my thoughts on the matter. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI've read the book before but I've never watched the movie. I'm interested in seeing the movie so I can compare the two like you have! When I get to watch it, I'll be sure to keep in mind what you said. I do agree though, the movie versions are nearly always worse than the books.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read/watched either but I like how you presented positive and negative aspects about both the book and the movie (while still presenting your opinion on which you think is better). Great job!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading the series (currently on book 3) and do intend to review it but I don't intend to watch the movie. It seems like a lot of book-movies leave out a lot of integral details and take the plot in too much of a "creative direction." I mean things like airships in the three musketeers movie which I haven't watched but the trailers are enough to get a sense of how bad the movie is. Also, the ending to the book does lead into the sequel fairly well but I can easily see how it would be confusing.
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