The Maze Runner

 I really wanted to enjoy the Maze Runner, as a book that will launch a new series of films (The sequel - Scorch Trials - already scheduled for a 2015 release) now that the Hunger Games trilogy is coming to an end. By the end of the book I felt like an indifferent lab rat ready to give up, however.

"Thomas" is awakened from a metal lift with no memories of his life before and introduced to a new life - an established community of boys that have gradually been brought, via the lift, to a Glade surrounded by an ever shifting maze which contains mutant killer creatures. Instead of a Lord of the Flies type scenario, however, the boys maintain a civilised group with rules and a leadership by elected board in order to stay alive, find a solution to the maze and escape.
It is interesting that the author restricts the group to just boys rather than a mixed society. (Yes "Teresa" is introduced, but only as a means to end the trial). I suppose that if there were girls as well, the group might just have decided not to bother to find a way out and just establish families in the Glade. As the boys have no memories of what they have left behind, they don't know that what they are trying to escape to is better than what they currently have.




The main problem I had with the text is the over-use of fear and horror adjectives in order to rack up the tension. Every danger makes Thomas sick with fear; break out into a sweat; knot his stomach at each horrific sight; noise; thought; until it becomes a crank too far. There is only so far up a roller coaster you can go before you need to come down and the odds of escape become too much of a superhuman feat for young boys.


Official movie website

There were quite a few changes made to the film adaptation, but I think mainly to improve on the book.
As mentioned above, the odds were just so stacked against the Gladers that their escape seemed impossible. In the film, Thomas and the others only ever come up against one Griever until the end game, making it more believable. The Grievers themselves are less repulsive and formidable, looking like a mechanical spider rather than a gelatinous blob that oozes spikes etc.
There is no cliff edge with an invisible door or any telepathy between Thomas and Teresa, so this grounds the story more in scientific possibility.
The clues to escape are also completely different, with Thomas using a device pulled from the dead body of a Griever to work out and gain access to the outside world. No changing patterns of the maze leading to letter and word clues that open a door - its now a number system. I suppose this helps speed up and simplify the narrative.
Once they escape, I liked the film version where the children wander through the clinical command centre with all the lab-coated scientists lying on the floor, following an attack by the rebel force. It had a Westworld feel to it. 

Despite all the changes, however, I think the direction of the movie was quite poor, as every time you weren't in the maze, scenes started to drag. The two twelve year old I took with me enjoyed it, but even my daughter kept pointing out the cliches (dripping saliva from a Griever / Alien) - and she hasn't even seen Alien!