Scorch Trials is the second instalment in the Maze Runner series, I really loved the first film and I loved the book series the films are adapted from. I had high hopes for this film and overall I was somewhat impressed but also ever so slightly let down.
I had typical second book/film syndrome. You must know what I mean, it feel into the New Moon, Catching Fire trap of a severely boring story building instalment. While Scorch Trials was no where near as boring as those examples, it still feel into the trap.
Maze Runner ends with the group breaking out of the maze and being "rescued" and taken to a sort of safe place. It is explained to them that there is a virus called the Flare which is turning people into zombie like creatures and for some reason a large percentage of the young are immune to this illness. WCKD is the organisation who trapped the teens in the maze in order to study their brain activity and find out why the young are immune to the virus.
Early on in Scorch Trials, the teens discover they are actually still under WCKD's control so they break out of the "safe place" and embark on a journey to find the Right Arm. The Right Arm are an organisation fighting against WCKD and trying to find an alternative cure to the Flare which doesn't involve the teens. All the while, the infected "cranks" are running riot and infecting people.
Basically, through out the whole film the teens are travelling through the scorch to find the Right Arm, sounds complicated right? Well, it is.
So much is going on in the film that the character development unfortunately takes a back seat. The first film, is very much about developing the characters and the relationships but the Scorch Trials seems to forget all this development in favour of a whole lot of action.
I know this review sounds like I hated it but I didn't. I feel like it does a really good job of bringing the book to life, the scenery and the cranks look exactly as I had imagined them, the truth is that the Scorch Trials book was a boring one compared to the others. In the adaptation to film so much has been changed presumably to make the film less boring than the book but unfortunately in doing so the film has been overloaded with action and lost the small details.
However, these reasons are why the film slightly let me down but the film did have redeeming qualities. It looked great, there was some really well played out emotional moments and I was super relieved to see that rather than keeping it tame for the young audiences, they pushed the boundaries and made the film more adult and intense. I am certain this will be the worst film in the franchise but it will lead on well to the third film and provided essential build up needed for the third instalment.
It would have been the safer option to follow the book more closely and the changes were definitely a risk. It wasn't a complete success but it wasn't a failure either.
Let me know your thoughts!
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