GUEST CRITIC: The Maze Runner

NEW GUEST CRITIC SERIES #4

As busy I get from time to time (and having a newborn baby at home isn't helping), I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I speak about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, sometimes a simple sentence or two from a friend says it all. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for quick-hit movie reviews.

TODAY'S CRITIC

Heather Williams is a single-and-ready-to-mingle Chicagoan who authors the blog "What I Look For in a..." Her written musings span the personal and the thoughtful through everyday life, like a good and interesting blog should. Both her blog site and her Twitter (page (@heathbar6) boast over 1,100 followers each. She and I met through, and now share, mutual friends at the trendy Trinity Christian Fellowship church on the northwest side of the city. Her own self-description on her About.me page reads like this:

"I'm just a girl, who loves life and living it. I enjoy running, sports, boxing, dancing, music, fashion, writing, and being weird with friends and family, or by myself. I also enjoy socializing. I work in Social Media and Marketing for an online marketing company in Chicago, or "Zee Chire", as I lovingly call it."

That glance in the mirror does not do Heather justice. The socializing comes easy. Her running ability can conquer marathons, several in fact. Her Puerto Rican heritage makes her boxing and her dancing temperamental and exotically elegant at the same time. Her writing speaks for itself and her fashion love is more than just a hobby after studying Fashion Design at the Illinois Institute of Art. You're going to have to judge the weight of her weirdness when and if you meet her. She's a gem, but the jury is still out.

HER REVIEW

I was disappointed, needless-to-say, with the plethora of plot changes from book to film. I understand that there was quite a bit of book to cover. However, details like Theresa and Thomas' telepathy, Gally being stung at the end of the film versus before Thomas arrived in The Glade, the serum to fight off the Greiver sting not already being present until Teresa's arrival, and the removal of the maze puzzle itself are just a sampling of complete butcherings the film offered up.

Truthfully, while entertaining, I would recommend it solely to those who have not read the book and have no intention to do so. My friend and I enjoyed tracking the non-readers' reactions throughout the film, but it just didn't hold our interests as I hoped it would. Instead we passed disapproving looks to one another randomly through the film.

CONCLUSION

See! What did I tell you? Solid and knowledgeable! That may or may not save a movie ticket or a book purchase, but Heather still saved me 800+ words of my own unskilled blathering. It doesn't help that I didn't read the source book the way she did. I'm glad Heather can give us the inside track as a reader and a fan of the series. I'd like to thank her for being my fourth "guest critic!" Be sure to find and follow her blog and Twitter! Thanks, church friend, for letting me play along!

Let's keep this going. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website (and get a fun fake biography written about you), hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!