YA Adaptation of the Year

Rating: 10/10 (3 October 2014)

I had been sooo excited for The Maze Runner movie ever since I heard there was going to be a movie! I read the book and quite liked it. It had a lot of elements I thought would look good in a movie, such as the griever and the maze, duh. And it did. It was awesome!
Fastened Pace - A Positive Change
Perhaps I shouldn't, but I will start right away with the changes because this affects the plot and pacing - which I'd like to talk about now - and most of the things big time. There were a lot of changes made, which usually I don't say as a compliment. However, this time it enhanced the quality of the movie (unlike in many other cases. Khm...I'm looking at you Divergent and City of Bones). Because this time, it wasn't for the sake of difference and it wasn't simply (awesome) scenes cut out. These were all well thought-out, important, meaningful changes. For the most part, they were to fasten the pacing. In the first half of the book, we get to know a copious amount of information and then goes the action. It works out fairly well in a book, but in a movie less so. Hence they inserted more action scenes (read: a LOT more action scenes) and what we needed to be informed about, we got meanwhile. I was not bored for a second!
The Cast - Pure Perfection
I don't know when I had the luck to see such an excellent cast last time. When an actor gets the role of a book character - especially if the book in question is one of my favorites - I have doubts. Serious ones. I care about my books and since there is a fat chance after the movie the image of the character in my head will morph into the actor/actress they're played by, I want the actor/actress to be very good. This time, however, I didn't feel anything like that. And post-movie, my opinion is untouched. All of them were perfect for the role as for their appearance and acting skills.
It's Alive! - About Grievers and the Maze
The Grievers are supposed to be scare-the-sh#t-out-of-you scary, according to both the book and the movie. They had never been defeated before after all. And they were grandiose and spiky. But in the book all I got was how ugly they were. Like, I wasn't freaked out of my mind by far. Also, they descriptions of them were a bit fuzzy even though that I could understand. When they were around it was never really time to take them under inspection. The point is, I was more than thrilled to finally see how they looked on the big screen. In fact, I went fangirly so much, I got all squealy in the middle of the movie hall and my friend I'd gone to see it with was like "It's okay. Calm down." I think she thought I saw scared. :D Not even close; I was super-huper excited. (I still am, look at that ridiculous made up word. LOL) Anyway, they were incredible! They were all spiky and grimy and monstrous and yes. Scary! A little like in Alien and absolutely cool. I am perfectly content with the outcome.
The maze were nothing less. It was as if it was alive when it moved and were fighting with the grievers for the first place monster award. They changed the code and the relating things a bit, the code was only a sequence of numbers for instance, which I thought took away a bit of the excitement of figuring it out, but I could overlook it after so many goodies.
Minus the Paranormal
When I first heard they would take away Thomas and Teresa's mind speaking, I wasn't sure how much I would miss it. Now I can answer that question; a bit, but I got used to it quickly. But I can understand why they did it. It was a nice mystery in the book, but it just wasn't necessary in the movie. I would go as far as saying it would have been strange if suddenly there would have been disembodied voices flying around. Furthermore, the movie already had enough action without it.