I was very excited when I learned that James Dashner’s The Maze Runner trilogy  was going to get the film treatment, more so when I discovered that they were casting some of my favorite young actors like Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones, Phineas and Ferb) and Kaya Scodelario (Skins UK, Now is Good). After watching the movie, though, I felt that there was a lot that was missing. The film didn’t quite deliver on the hype it built up in the months leading up to the release.

Thomas (O’Brien) wakes up in with no memory in the company of a bunch of boys living in The Glade. The place operates with each of the Gladers performing specific tasks like a small community. But unlike any regular place, the Glade is surrounded by secrets, mainly as it is connected to a giant maze, in which mechanical monsters called Grievers reside. When the first and only girl is sent to the Glade shortly after Thomas, he feels a connection to the newcomer, and senses that there is a higher purpose to their arrival.

The Maze Runner was a well written book but since it is part of a trilogy, it only manages to tell the first part of the story. The film made sure to stay faithful to the book for the most part and interpreted the book in such an amazing way that each detail seemed to be lifted from the literature, from the Glade to the Maze. Kudos to the CGI team as it was obvious the majority of the movie was shot on green/blue screen.

What I felt that was lacking from the movie was the connection between the characters and the characters’ connection to the audience. In the book, there was a great relationship built between Thomas and the Gladers, particularly Newt, Minho, and Chuck but in the movie, it seemed that all the focus was on Thomas and all the rest of the characters were just gravy. It was such a shame that the characters were not given a bigger chance to shine because the teen that they cast as Minho (Ki Hong Lee) was really very charismatic as a a hero and embodied his literary counterpart really well. As for Newt, my favorite book character, I felt like his film version got the shot end of the stick because the script did not allow for Brodie-Sangster to display the levelheadedness and bravery of the character that made Newt special. Chuck, in my honest opinion was a miscast because Blake Cooper looked to be too old to be that vulnerable. Chuck needed to be smaller and more innocent looking. In the book, he followed Thomas around everywhere and idolized him but in the film, aside from one moment, there was nothing significant that connected them, which made Thomas’s devastation in the end a bit of a overreaction.

I think Gally’s character was the most watered down among all the Gladers. He was neither a bully or a leader and made for an uncertain villain.

While I believe that the proper editing of the source material is essential in making for a successful film adaptation, the filmmakers just simplified most of the events in the book yet failed to establish the essence behind them. Because of this, it lost much of the impact of what the maze truly stood for.

All in all, The Maze Runner relied too heavily on the effects to provide the adventure part of the story and forgot that it had a cast of really strong young actors at its disposal too. I hope filmmakers does better in the Scorch Trials because as it stands, the Maze Runner was a pretty underwhelming beginning to a supposedly action filled trilogy. And with the amount of movies vying for the same market, the sequel should step up its game or become one of those generic movies that everyone just forgot.