Thomas wakes up in an ascending lift, the “box”, only to arrive in a Glade surrounded by 30 other boys he doesn’t recognize. He doesn’t know his name, who he is or where he’s from.

Tall towering concrete walls protect the glade from the outside dangers of the maze. Grievers. They’re hideous slimy alien-like metal dangerous monsters. They lurk in the daily changing maze with their screaming roars and slicing claws, ready to sting the runners who map out the maze everyday in hope of finding a way out.

Just like in the book, the movie begins with confusion, frustration and endless questions from Thomas’s point of view.

There are rules that the gladers must follow along with a routine procedure in order to survive. Although it goes unspoken, you can tell over the three years they’ve been there – they’ve accepted the fact that there is no leaving no matter what they attempt.

Being a fan of “The Maze Runner” series, I had high expectations about the movie.

Rather than my usual opinion of “the book is always better than the movie”, I was hoping the movie brought justice to the story. I thought the book wasn’t as strong as it could have been.

It’s a complex book that often left more questions than answers, lack of character development, and poor descriptions which occurred throughout the whole series.

I thought The Maze Runner would be better told on screen than in James Dashner’s writing. I was right.

Director Wes Ball captured the plot perfectly in a fast pacing, mysterious dystopian film.

The cast was full of award winning spectacular actors from everywhere. Multiple actors had to hide their thick English accents such as Will Poulter who portrayed Gally, the nasty “bully” in the story. Poulter who often plays light humorous ridiculous characters played the “antagonist” in “The Maze Runner”.

Dylan O’Brien who plays Thomas, brings his character to life with deep astounding acting. It’s apparent when he’s worried, when he was overwhelmed, when he’s on the edge of his frustration, when he’s too curious for his own good, all of it.

Aml Ameen gave a powerful performance as Alby. Being close to death, holding back tears, being the stern leader, he accomplished it all.

Even Kaya Scodelario did great as Teresa, the fierce caring greenie that had less screentime than expected. Teresa, the first female who shockingly arrived unconscious a few days after Thomas with a note in her hand, “she’s the last one ever.” Scodelario portrayed the independent bold excellently.

I thought all the actors fit my image of the characters perfectly, it was amazing how their acting and look made a spot on cast in “The Maze Runner.

“The Maze Runner” didn’t go down the same trend other recent book to films have been doing which I was very pleased with. Rather than having famous or uprising artists have a featurette on their soundtrack, there was an orchestrated score.

Composed by John Paesano, he expresses the tone of the movie with intense fast paced music playing when it was frightening and quiet. Then go slow and a chorus of many that gave off an eerie mysterious vibe during calm gentle scenes.

Of course like every book to film adaptations, things were changed and taken out to fit the time sequence.

The drastic changes that stood out were mainly that involved Teresa. In the book, Teresa and Thomas had a telepathic connection that hinted the possible answer of who placed them in the glade.

I’m glad they changed it up a bit though. It prevents any possible romance in a story such like “The Maze Runner” where the moral is important in this plot. The young kids are all trapped working together to find a way out, it wouldn’t make sense to squeeze any sense of romance.

Ball did a fantastic job creating the vision that Dashner created. It had a great balance of comedic one liners, action, mystery, tragedy and I loved it all.

“The Maze Runner” movie was exciting, and suspenseful and action packed and exceeded my high expectations. I strongly encourage everyone to run to the theaters to catch this film.