The Maze Runner - Movie review

Rating: 4/10 (4 February 2015)

It was a Wednesday afternoon when I thought I was finally getting answers to my questions. The screen lit up. We heard a boy sighing deep, and I was already flashed back. I thought this finally would be a good movie, that doesn't profit of the worldwide phenomenon of The Hunger Games, but clearly, just after a second or two, I had already realized that that was just not going to happen. For a moment, I thought I would see Katniss Everdeen crying as she entered the Quarter Quell, but apparently she was replaced by a 16-year-old boy named Thomas. Seriously, are we doing this again? I avoided the entire Divergent franchise because of "it", and "it" meaning the book-to- movie adaptations that are based on a book that clearly liked to fly on the wing of the big Mockingjay, hoping to reach success without even having to do any kind of effort.
I tried to enjoy the movie, yet I couldn't resist comparing every little detail of it to my beloved The Hunger Games. The grievers were just another name for the mutts that the Capitol made, even the clothing was the same: the poor dressed in dirty, retro clothes, and even the villain was dressed in pure, innocent white. Maybe they didn't have to kill each other? They didn't have to, but apparently they did it voluntary after being injected with a serum (aka being hijacked with tracker jacker blood).
I had some serious doubts if this movie wasn't written by a 6-year- old who just watched The Hunger Games. Why the girl? Why doesn't she do a damn thing? Is she really just there to make another awkward romance? I really didn't know why she even was there, in a world full of teenage boys. Of course it will probably be explained in the sequel why she is so special, but I still consider her as not worth any attention, I mean, she could even be replaced by a plant and it wouldn't even make that big of a difference. The important telepathy part from the books that made her not as useless as she probably could have been, was completely ignored in the movie- adaptation.
And finally, Chuck died, and I just couldn't help but laugh inside. I just knew it was about to happen, I could feel the Rue-ness in the air just from the moment when Thomas was introduced to him. Oddly enough, Thomas didn't do any kind of three-finger-salute to a hidden camera.
Although I really did not enjoy the movie at all, I could give a bit of credit to Dylan O'Brien for the acting that wasn't as terrible as most of the plot. In fact, I could see him playing in better, more pleasant franchises soon.