Hi guys! I was thinking about what to post today since I posted my planned review yesterday… Well while thinking my gaze just fell upon my The Maze Runner Books and I thought “Hey! Why not just talk about those books and the movies?” So, yeah, I am just going to do that! So let’s go!!
(I had to do this! Fangirl mode ON)
BTW, there are going to be spoilers, so you should’ve read the books before reading this!
General thoughts first
I absolutely love the The Maze Runner series as well as other books by the author James Dashner. Even though I was pretty late with reading these books (I read them last and this year! Shame on me…) I adore them and they are some of my favorite books. And that says a lot, since I’m that kind of person that never really has a favorite book – I just love all the books I love. If that makes any kind of sense… But yeah, as I said, this is definitely an all time favorite! I really don’t have any bad things to say about the series except or the horrible people who everyone loves to hate!
Now let’s go on to the movies! I generally liked the movies a lot even though the second one differs a lot from the book in my opinion. That didn’t make me not like them though because I think sometimes you just have to accept that movie adaptions just can’t be everything you want, but can still be very good!
Let’s talk characters!
Book: I personally think that the characters in the book are very well-developed and I enjoyed watching – or more like reading – them grow, fall, and get up again. My favorite person actually varies from book to movie. In the books my favorite person is Minho. I just find him to be an incredible personalities which is also real. He has his ups and downs he gives up but also carries on. He has a lot of very good qualities and one can just relate to him sometimes! For example the way he reacts to being stuck in the maze. He breaks down, get angry at the other person around and just plain screams around and this reaction is just so normal! How many people would keep calm in such a situation? Yeah, yeah except Thomas… This is just one of the things about Minho that makes him such an incredible person! In the first two books Gally is obviously a horrible person but through the explaining and actions taking place in the third part I honestly don’t think he’s that bad, and then I mostly felt sorry for him…Sorry but I am not going to talk about every single character, can’t cover all that awesomeness in one post.
Movie: Well as I said at the beginning I really like the movies the way they are but that doesn’t change the fact that some characters were changed, at least in my opinion. One that stands out here is Alby. In the books he comes across as rude and *ugh* I can’t even really explain it but he’s just not likable. In the movie this is way different! He almost acts like Thomas’ mentor in the beginning even though in the books he seemed like he immediately hated Thomas in the books. That was a part that annoyed me a little about the movie, since obviously the characters are the most important part!! Another character that was different, if only a little, was Newt. I think that in the books he is kinda like the second leader of the Gladers in the book and in the movies it doesn’t really come across like that… I feel sorry for all those who haven’t read the books.
Story!!
Before I start I have to say that for now I will only point out my “Top 3 differences” and one sentence pointing out how different each movie is, since that varies.
The Maze Runner:
- The first days in the maze are pretty different since they are shorted and pressed into like two or three days. Obviously, when turning a book into a movie, not all the details about the community in the Glade can be included, for it would just be information overload and it would make the movie way to long. So it’s a justifiable difference – but still different.
- Thomas way of having the first contact with someone “stung” is different as well. I like the way it’s done in the movie as well but still thought it should be mentioned.
- THE WHOLE CODING SYSTEM IN THE MAZE!! Yes, the movie version is good as well but in the book it’s so much harder and also shows how well thought through it is by WICKED. I loved how they solved the thing in the book!!
I general I think this movie is mostly close to the book and doesn’t change a lot of essential meaning of the story.
The Scorch Trials:
- The entire system of mazes and how the story continues, after the Gladers were saved, is completely different! That I do think is kind of bad because from then on the whole story kinda starts changing and doesn’t keep its “simplicity”. By that I only mean the mazes! Everything else about this series is as far from simple as can be, so please don’t hate 🙂 You gotta admit: from 2 mazes to I-don’t-know-how-many is a pretty big change. By “how the story continues” I mean their initial accommodation after their escape and the actions that finally make them go into the Scorch.
- Teresa’s role is completely different up until the very ending of the movie. She absent for most of the Scorch in the book but in the movie she stays with the Gladers and only betrays them at the “Safe Haven” which brings me to my last important point:
- Safe Haven. It is this big community that’s actually like a real place and not just some stick in the ground. This of course changes a main part of the story – this epic fight with yet another type of made up creature.
This movie is way different from the book. That goes from relatively small things (like the number of mazes) to pretty big ones (the way of being recaptured by WICKED at the end). I still like the movie though and think it’s a good story and movie, it just isn’t the book and I can accept that. Why would I want a movie that’s EXACTLY like the book?
Grievers!! ❤
Might seem weird to love Grievers but in my defense: I don’t love Grievers themselves but what I do love is the way the first movie made them come to life. Sometimes it’s pretty hard for me to figure out how these fantasy…- things, I guess? – could look in real life. That was the case with Grievers. I love that the movie gave me a picture to fit the descriptions, so my uncreative mind wouldn’t have to keep trying to make up monsters that would fit!
Thank you movie industry!!
So that’s my little comparison of book and movie. How did you like it? Thank you guys for reading and please let me now what you thought of it. Bye for now and have a great day, night, or whatever! 🙂
❤
a word about books 