Not only was The Scorch Trials fast-paced and exhilarating, it was probably one of the best book-to-movie adaptation sequels that I’ve seen for a while now. When it comes to teen adaptation movies, sometimes it can go horribly wrong (there is an abundance of evidence for this), but Wes Ball (director), James Dashner (author) and the cast managed to achieve such a cool plot and some great characters.
The movie starts from where The Maze Runner left off in a situation where basically no one knows what’s going on (a theme of the entire series, or arguably a consistent theme of the dystopian genre itself). This made for a really mysterious plot where you never really know where the characters are going to take you in the action adventure sequel. Sometimes the pacing of the movie felt a little too quick for my liking, and could have done with a few more slower-paced scenes just so I could catch my breath after the acrobatics of Dylan O’Brien, but that’s seriously a minor glitch in comparison to how awesome this addition to the series was. So in the first movie the ‘baddies’ were the Grievers, which were pretty damn scary, even for a Sci-Fi lover like myself, but in this instalment of the Maze Runner series we were introduced to Cranks; these guys and gals were basically big, creepy, pretty realistic, future zombies. Going into the cinema I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did and one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because of how jumpy things were. Even when everyone knew something was going to make you jump, it still shocked everyone in the theatre.
The Scorch Trials also makes way for some fresh meat, which quite I enjoyed. The most significant addition to the crew was Rosa Salazar as Brenda who I thought did a great job at portraying her character and I felt as though she was really well layered for such a new character, working as a well rounded addition to the maze survivors. Furthermore, Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge was really convincing character and I thought that Esposito’s acting was on point- also I had this moment when I realised that he played the magic mirror on Once Upon A Time and I love it when I recognise actors so that was my little happy moment in the cinema. Of course I loved the acting of the core cast and their characters and if you have seen the movie then you know which character really annoyed me. Dylan O’Brien seems to be able to adapt fantastically to whatever role he’s playing and once again he managed to fit Thomas’ character exceedingly well (also… swoon). Unfortunately nothing’s ever perfect and some of the decisions that were made by the characters seems so obviously stupid that I just wanted to shout at the screen, but I guess that without them there wouldn’t be a proper plot (ahh… first world problems). Also, however much I love Kaya Scodelario and I think she’s such a talented actor, you could tell when her accent faltered at points. Other than that she was really convincing as Theresa, I just don’t know why they couldn’t just have left her with her English accent like Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Newt).
Just like most ‘teen movies’ The Scorch Trials contains some pretty serious situations and some gritty, reckless teen-dystopian style decisions, but it doesn’t take away from the how fantastical the movie was. I like how the plot seems to be heading and for the third movie (please, oh, please don’t let them split it into two movies!) and I’m really excited for the conclusion to the series - The Death Cure.
I’d give a 9 out of 10 for The Scorch Trials and absolutely recommend anyone to go see it – maybe watch the first film beforehand though, yeah?
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