So the second book of The Maze Runner Trilogy, The Scorch Trials, by sir James Dashner finally hit the big screen today. Is this movie worth seeing? To answer that, let’s give the movie a piece by piece review.
CHARACTERS:
The Gladers in the book is about 20, but I believe it is only fair that whoever made the movie had decided to reduce the number of Gladers into 7– Thomas, Teresa, Minho, Newt, Frypan, Winston, and Aris (a new character). This way the viewers can focus on the important Gladers and how much these characters have grown. You can totally see the effect of the maze on the Gladers and how difficult this “trial” is compare to the maze. At one point of the movie, Frypan says that he misses the maze, and I totally understand that. Why? I can answer that to the next category.
CINEMATICS:
The movie sure has a lot of action scenes that the fans will love. That lightning storm in the book surely was done beautifully on the screen. I was holding my breath as the sky attempted to smite the Gladers as they ran for safety inside the building they have spotted. The gun scene will surely receive the thumbs up of action lovers out there. However, what I am looking for is the whole struggle of the Gladers while in the scorch: hunger, thirst, injury, and so on. All of these were a burden on the Gladers’ shoulders, in the book. What happened? Sure, they struggled in the Scorch, but the movie failed to show the effect of the sun in the weather. There is a reason why the book is called The Scorch Trials.
FAITHFULNESS TO THE BOOK:
Faithfulness Percentage: 13%
The movie starts with a little flashback. That’s cool! We can always add a little intro to the movies. After that, we get where the 1st book, The Maze Runner, left off. And then, you are seeing a whole new thing. You will always find yourself saying, “that did not happen in the book.” That is not good. I understand if they tweak things a little bit but still follow the book! They did a good job of doing the action scenes and other elements of the movie, but they fail to translate the intensity of the book that sir James Dashner has put for his readers.
Now, there’s a lot of things that doesn’t make sense. The book is about finding out the mystery of why should all the “variables” must be followed at all cost, and that connects us to the maze. Now, it doesn’t make any sense. If Wicked is just after the cure, then the maze is just a complete rubbish. I understand if they would notice the cure like in the book, but put some connection to the maze, please.
I hope all these questions will be answered in the third movie, so then I believe the movie is kind of like the book in a sense that it sets up a whole lot of questions, so you have something to crave for.
SHOULD YOU WATCH THIS MOVIE?
Yes! You should watch this, but there’s a couple of things you need to remember so you can enjoy the movie:
- Read the book first. This way, you can make sense of what is going on. Without the book, you will be flooded with questions as if this is not a sequel of The Maze Runner.
- To fully enjoy the movie, tell yourself that this movie is just setting you up to a certain mystery to prepare you for the third and final movie (I hope the 3rd movie will really connect all the 3 movies).
- There are some parts from the book that are in the movie. Most of these parts though are done differently, but its sense is still the same.
- Dylan O’Brien is adorable.
RATING:
3/5 STAR(S)
Fearless Kurt 