James Dashner

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The Maze Runner Film Review

<br /> The walls will haunt them until they find a way out.

Rarely do I say a movie is better than the book, however I must admit that I did enjoy The Maze Runner film more than I did its source material. The director Wes Ball (with the help of script writer Noah Oppenheim) takes a few creative liberties, while remaining rather faithful to the book, which streamlines the plot and helps to flesh out some characters in a way that was unfortunately absent in the novel. The premise is intriguing enough to hook in non-readers of the series, everyone knows dystopian post-apocalyptic themes are all the rage right now.

We open with our protagonist (played by Dylan O’Brien) in the dodge looking elevator (the box), moving slowly- before gaining momentum- upward. He’s disorientated and freaking out, understandably, as the lift moves faster. When the box grinds to a halt and the doors open, he finds himself with a colony of boys who welcome him to the Glade – a large open field surrounded by enormous concrete walls. He has no knowledge of where he is, doesn’t know where he came from, and he can’t remember his parents, his past, or even his own name. I like that his name literally gets knocked back into him- it takes getting punched out for him to remember that his name is Thomas.

Thomas is just getting used to working without asking too many questions with the seemingly-wise Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), tolerating the douchetastically brutish Gally (Will Poulter), and becoming fond of the adorkable Chuck (Blake Cooper) when he’s attacked by someone stung by a griever (biomechanical creatures in the maze) and his questions come right back. Back with such force that in a moment of sheer adrenalin he breaks protocol and runs into the maze after my fav- I mean- Minho (Ki Hong Lee) and Alby (Aml Ameen) as the huge walls close.

The arrival of Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), a girl with links to Thomas’s past, delivered via the box bearing a note saying she’s the last one ever, alerts you to the fact that the proverbial ‘it’ is indeed about to go down. Soon enough the boys aren’t just fighting against the grievers and institutionalisation but amongst themselves with regard to rules, power and the pecking order. William Golding would be stroking his beard with keen interest. The film doesn’t shy away from doing its darned best to elicit feelings of concern for the characters, even if you’ve read the book there are enough differences to warrant you wondering if they’re going to go full rogue with the storyline.

I’m liking the direction they’ve taken with the plot and our characters, especially Thomas and Teresa. Thomas doesn’t annoy me as much as he did in the book. If at all. Teresa is given much more agency, seriously the changes to the plot to allow Kaya more screen time and Teresa a bit more growth worked wonders for the character. They’ve done away with the telepathic link between the two, which I liked. It forces the script to be tighter and not waft about with two characters talking to each other in their heads as everyone else looks on as the awkward silence lengthens.

Visually the movie’s rather pretty, and I’m not just talking about the cast. The film is prettily shot, making the glade appear rather lovely and the maze is as ominous and colossal as you would imagine it to be with the grievers being the perfect mix of terrifying and disgusting. The cast had excellent chemistry, believable comradeship and the budding bromances, with enough moments of tension-relieving humour to allow you space to breathe. However the movie does suffer slightly from pacing problems, starting off a bit slow before suddenly kicking it up about 400 notches so that everything in the second half of the film feels like it’s happening all at once. They hit you with a whole lot of exposition at the end, but I suppose it’s either that or you and the gladers leave utterly confused about everything- not that there’s too much clarity for our protagonists when they leave. The whirlwind explanation of WCKD leaves you slightly breathless before the final twists that punch you right in the feels. WCKD is good…?

The Maze Runner opens in NZ theaters on Sept 25th.

Check out the extended trailer

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Maze Runner Film Reaction and Scorch Trials is a GO!

While we can’t post our full review just yet we had to express our feels a bit after seeing The Maze Runner (because you know we had our qualms about the series in the past). And yet we weren’t too apprehensive going in, the concept is awesome and the cast is great, even if the book series made me want to punch puppies? Right? RIGHT? SO, it’s with great joy I report that the film, in my most humble opinion, is so worth the emotional turmoil of the series. The film was was pretty darn good. They even managed to make me like the characters I wanted to punch repeatedly in the books (no really, check out our spoilerous reviews) cough Thomas and Teresa cough. Also, excellent news about the sequel after our feelsplosion. Without further ado…JawkwardLOL’s reaction to The Maze Runner.

At the start we were like:

And then that thing happened (yeah you know what it is if you’ve read the book) and we were like:

At one point we punched the air like:

And then felt punched in the gut:

And we just sat there like:

But by the end all we wanted to know was…when’s The Scorch Trials coming out?

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Well, great news! Apparently they’ve already got preproduction underway (with filming scheduled to start soon) in New Mexico… two weeks before The Maze Runner even hits theaters in the US. We’re freakin’ out over here, because that means the sequel is a go. We repeat, the sequel is a GO! But uh, we already knew that didn’t we? Because…c’mon. Unfortunately for us Kiwis our film’s release date is a week after ‘Murica. Get thee to a cinema on the 25th of September!

There are many reasons to. Many reasons.

Maze Runner :):):):):):):):):):)

Check out this clip from the film:

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The Maze Runner - First Official Trailer

The trailer for the movie adaptation of James Dashner’s The Maze Runner premiered on MTV during an episode of Teen Wolf. What do we think? You know our stance on the series (links to reviews below) however the trailer, especially casting choices and visual effects, has us optimistic. 20th Century Fox are bringing us a killer film, while I don’t like to rely too heavily on the trailers for fear of being let down- the trailer kind of gave us goosebumps!

The effects look great, casting choices were spot on and the whole mystery of the maze is established very well. Who’s ready?

Welcome to the Glade.

The global premiere of The Maze Runner trailer is coming tomorrow during an all new Teen Wolf at 10pm! Until then, bask in this exclusive GIF. You CANNOT miss this.

NZ Release Date: Sept 18th 2014

Release Dates Worldwide:

Dates

If you’ve yet to read the series we suggest you do. Check out our reviews of all three books!

The Maze Runner (Spoiler free!)

The Scorch Trials (Spoilers!)

The Death Cure (Spoilers!)

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The Death Cure Review

https://stockyardmama.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/deathcure.jpg?w=680 Title: The Death Cure Series: The Maze Runner Trilogy

Author: James Dashner

Publisher: Delacorte Press

What’s that I hear? I finished this book months ago and haven’t posted a review despite the fact that the book’s been out for over two years? Pipe down shuckfaces, I’m getting to it. Who’s ready for a chat about the conclusion to James Dashner’s dystopian sci-fi trilogy? Where do I begin, how about I start at ‘can I get an Amen now that that’s over?’ AMEN! Also, fair warning, this review will contain SPOILERS.

Not that it matters, because no questions were answered in the making of this book, apparently. And there were a lot of questions to be asked. Like why Thomas joined WICKED in the first place, and why wouldn’t you want your memories back in order to understand what exactly you were rebelling against?! And who the hell makes a ‘plague’ to control entire populations without first testing out what exactly the bloody side-effects are? If you scratch the plot enough I feel it’ll crumble like a brittle branch on a tree that’ll see you plummet from that place you sit suspending your disbelief. If, like me, you tore through the book trying to find a reason to like Thomas let me save you the trouble- there isn’t one. I’m kidding, but seriously I think in the end he should have sacrificed himself for the sake of the others. Because sure he considered everyone his friend, he may even have had conflicted emotions in regards to Teresa and Brenda (more of which I will discuss further below in it’s own category of ‘What the actual?’) but in the end Thomas felt like someone being pulled along by forces outside of his control no matter how he responded.

Minho and Newt were the only characters I liked, aside from Jorge who was just around and did cool things like calling everyone ‘brother’ in Spanish- every time he spoke, ‘hermano- what jew doing? Hermano, no don’t do that ese.’ Great characterisation. Now I liked Minho because he was a simple guy- wanted to survive, did what it took and was just likeable. I don’t know whether it was because in contrast to Thomas, anyone could have been likeable, but I found Minho much more pleasant than I did Thomas. Also, the emotion. Minho had more human emotion in his pinky than Thomas seemed to have in his entire body. Chestnut aside, Minho was an interesting character which I would gladly read more about. Now Newt. Dear, sweet, unfortunate Newt. Another well-written character having to interact with poorly-written ones- I’m looking at you, Thomas. I felt more of an affiliation with the Cranks than I did with Thomas, and I don’t know if this says something about me in particular, or whether it’s because I have a point. I’m going with the latter.

Newt, struggling with the weight of knowing he’s slowly going insane with the Flare, wants Thomas to kill him. He’d given Thomas a note to read when the time was right, “Kill me. If you’ve ever been my friend, kill me.” Thomas doesn’t have the balls to do it until much later, shooting Newt in the head. Understandable, who’d want to shoot one of their best friend’s in the head? But it’s choosing the lesser of two evils, letting Newt live out the rest of his days the way he was going, as a Crank, would have been the cruelest option by far.

What the Actual?!

I understand the need for a triangle, the romantic angle appeals to the reader, I suppose, keeps ‘em in suspense. Here’s the thing, while romance and a romantic triangle have the potential to humanise a book, when done well, it just aggravates the reader when executed poorly. And it was executed rather poorly here. First of all, it would have benefited from fleshed out female characters. Teresa was around for all three books and I felt like I hardly knew a thing about her, certainly not enough to decide whether or not I liked her- and then she’s just killed off. Thomas’ reaction is priceless. It’s like he’s watching Teresa get onto a train, rather than be crushed to death by a slab of ceiling which she saved him from. If Thomas were to be examined by the authorities, following the death of a spouse, they’d rule that he’d concocted the entire thing in order to start dating Brenda. It just seemed that way, okay? And who the hell is Brenda in the end, but someone who also lied to him from the beginning of their relationship? At least Thomas had known Teresa since he was a child and what she did she did out of necessity- at least in her own skewed way. We won’t really know because Teresa’s motivations were largely kept from us. And we’d also never know if Thomas and Brenda knew each other before the Flare because Thomas refused to let them return his memories. In the end Teresa’s death seemed almost inconsequential to Thomas, I think he cared more about Chuck’s death- and Chuck’s death was a product of WICKED’s control. I suppose it was a way to redeem Teresa’s transgressions and open up the pathway for Thomas and Brenda to skip happily off to a paradise filled with Munies (derogatory term for Immunes), but it just came off looking like a cop out. Yeah, I said it. Suddenly Teresa was expendable?

Honestly, Dashner should have made the ultimate sacrifice and killed off Thomas. I don’t know if I have much else to offer, if you’ve made it this far I’ll give you this. Dashner’s writing improved, his characterisation took a dive and his world-building, granted it’s ours just set in a world where the our Ozone layer’s gone kaput and the sun’s scorch has ravaged the land and the governments stupidly released a plague to control people but it backfired and ended up making them UNcontrollable, is pretty cool. But this is a series I’m quite happy to be done with. Doesn’t mean I’m not excited for the film. Yay!

Honourable Mentions: - I was left feeling like one of the subjects, kept in the dark for the most part and wishing I was somewhere else. - Even Janson felt more developed than Thomas and he was the bad guy. Also, what a wack job- but then again he had contracted the Flare. What was Thomas’ excuse? - Chancellor Paige stepped out of those memos and into our hearts. Not really, but Wicked is Good. Also, not really. Every government that took part in the release of the Flare were incompetent fools. Wicked is Stupid, more like. - I may review Rae Carson’ Fire and Thorns trilogy next. Great female protagonist, interesting world and lore, an all-round epic read. Any thoughts? Anyone? Anyone out there? *echoes*

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The Scorch Trials - Review

Title: The Scorch Trials

Series: The Maze Runner Trilogy

Author: James Dashner

Publisher: Delacorte Press

As the second book in a trilogy I think The Scorch Trials suffers from middle child syndrome. In that it knows it should be better than the first child but perhaps falls a little short and feels like it exists to make things easier for the third child. Granted, the writing seems to have matured, a sure-fire plus, the characters seem to fail at making you care. Or maybe it’s the seemingly never ending onslaught of shit that they have to endure which should make me more inclined to give a damn but at points I only feel annoyed at how whiny Thomas becomes.

I know Teresa was supposed to make Thomas hate her for the sake of the trials but there was only so much ‘I have to act this way because they’re controlling me but I can break out of it and can’t tell you anything yet you have to trust me without knowing what I know’ that I could take. The trials is unlike the first book in that the group are no longer being held in captivity- and although the last novel ended in what we thought was a rescue it was anything but.

We’re introduced to new characters who you either love or hate, with their own built-in plot twists, and are introduced to the dystopian world as dreary as The Hunger Games but far less structured. Thomas and the gang, throughout the course of the book, often wish to be back in the Maze for obvious reasons but you’ll have to read the book to find out what those reasons *cough* everyone is mental *cough*.

Special Mentions:

- Human beings being pushed to their utmost limits, especially adolescents, can do some crazy things. Who would have thought that the most crazy thing to do was trust people?

- Anyone else see that twist coming? Yeah, same.

- Jess thinks: Intentionally left blank because I have not yet asked her her thoughts on this book.

- I’m almost done reading the Death Cure. I don’t know that the title’s a spoiler, I’m going to assume no. I could be wrong, don’t be mad. But when I am I’ll be back with another review for you and your little dog too.

2 Comments Posted on by JawkwardLOL Book Reviews, Book Talk, The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner - Review (Spoiler free, can it be? Yes, yes it can.)

Title: The Maze Runner

Series: The Maze Runner Trilogy

Author: James Dashner

Publisher: Delacorte Press

When was the last time I reviewed something that wasn’t a TV show or the X Factor NZ? (See what I did there? Snigger.) Well I can’t tell you- technically I could, but there’s no way I’m going to muster up enough bother to go a clicking for the answer. So let’s just have a chat about the Maze Runner by James Dashner already, shall we? Jess has read the trilogy and I’m half way through it, a wee bit late to the party but hey I’m here! Better late than never, better late than lying in a ditch somewhere, am I right? Yes, words to live by, kids. Now, while Jess is traipsing about in LA, I’m in New Zealand where we’ve finally got some sun but I’ve barely noticed it as I’ve foregone any interaction (sort of) with the outside world in my consumption of the series. I’ve only just managed to tear myself away from my kindle to talk about the first book.

I have to say I found the writing itself slightly juvenile, however the plot and characters were intriguing, keeping me completely engrossed if at times exasperated. So we wake up with our protagonist, hero, main character, pal, buddy in an elevator. He doesn’t know who he is or how he got there, or even where ‘there’ is. All he knows is that his first name is Thomas and, once the doors open, he’s surrounded by other guys around his age who refer to him as a shank. Shank, shuck-face and klunk are just a few slang terms you’ll become accustomed to, hopefully, as Thomas does.

The Glade, this place the kids have been for the last few years, is a large piece of land surrounded by some gigantic walls, gigantic walls that are part of a huge maze. However it isn’t just the huge maze that’s the problem, there are creatures lurking out in the maze are well good at being scary. Thomas’s arrival becomes a catalyst for change, in the Glade. Something unexpected turns up in the elevator after Thomas that completely throws them all for a loop. It isn’t just the memory loss that disorientates and confuses Thomas, and the reader, events that should shed light sometimes only cast more of a shadow.

Written in the third person limited we know only as much as Thomas does, or rather what Thomas reveals to us at any given point. What I mean by that is sometimes Dashner deliberately withholds Thomas from fully disclosing certain ideas or epiphanies in his thinking. Now I’ve never been one for patience, however a little patience can be rewarding if you’re going to read this book. Dashner deliberates the reveal of significant answers generating frustration both from the reader and the protagonist. There’s only so much ‘We can’t tell you!’ from the Gladers and ‘I don’t know!’ from Thomas I can take.

However if you’re keen for a dystopian young adult series with an ambiguous kick, then have a go at the Maze Runner. You’ll have to navigate your own labyrinth as you try to figure out what’s going on without seeing where you’re going, and at times you’ll come run into a bit of a dead end, but you’ll find that your minotaur may be closer to home than you think.

Special Mentions May Contain Spoilers:

- Not a spoiler, just in case someone’s gaze strays down just a shucking excuse to utilise the klunking slang. You shuck-face klunker! If you’re a greenbean to our site then welcome, even if you’re not a greenie I welcome you anyway.

- I think Dean Winchester said it best when he said:

- The movie that’s being filmed as I type? Based on some concept art that EW have released it should wind up looking rather spectacular. I also like the casting.

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