Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
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Writers: T.S. Nowlin (screenplay), and James Dashner (novel)
Cast: Dylan O'Brien (Thomas), Ki Hong Lee (Minho), Kaya Scodelario (Teresa), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Newt), Dexter Darden (Frypan), Alexander Flores (Winston), Jacob lofland (Aris), Rosa Salzar (Brenda), Giancarlo Esposito (Jorge), patricia Clarkson (Ava Paige), Aiden Gillen (Janson), Terry Dale Parks (Carl), Kathryn Smith-McGlynn as Dr.Crawford, Lili Taylor.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. With that being said my wife and daughter were both sick on New Years, way to go 2016. Anyway it all has to do with a stomach bug that is going around, and believe me, getting sick a few days before work would not be a good thing. As the days progressed, my wife, Melissa got better and my kid Colleen got worse, yes it sucked, she threw up many times, and the poor thing was up many nights. But, today as i write this, January 8th review, Colleen is better and my world is less crazier. So i hope your holidays were great, and new exciting endeavors come your way. Lets kick off the New Year with the Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. Yes i know it's an older film, but since i reviewed the first one, it's safe to say, i really wanted to review this film, i guess I'm a sucker for sequels. Before i start the review i would like to give a big shout out! to my friends George and Bridget, they both had said that the gore was really bad in this film. After watching it and being a Walking Dead fan, my whole family loves horror films, gore all that stuff, the only thing i have t say to my friends is, "Guys the film wasn't that bad," my wife and kid laughed, because we were trying to find out were the extreme gore was, and yes there was a bit but not enough to make your stomach churn. Anyway, love you guys, next up my review of Maze Runner: Scorch Trials.
Survivors: The young group of youths who made it through the maze are now in a bit of a pickle, their hope what seemed lost is now interrupted by a world that is torn, a world devastation, a virus os some kind has infected people, that is called the "Flare," an infection that changes you into an enraged zombie, or some undead type. The movie really does not go into detail, but to me it's a zombie thing, a walking dead meets the wild west, just kidding; Anyway the infection is fast, and it changes you into a zombie called the crank. The group is taken to a facility made of steel, everyone is armed, and no one gets out, because the adults all have the cool looking weapons, and who in there right mind take on these armed bad asses. The survivors get food, a shower, all the things to make them relax, before there put into a sleep, and plugged up to a machine, tubes extracting from their extremities. The facility leader is a crude guy called Janson (Aiden Gillen) a sheer bad ass that takes only the answer yes, and no isn't in the vocabulary, they find the survivors question them, and put them into the population of other survivors that are called by name, which then are transferred to hell, yes stick me with needles, and tubes and see what happens. Thomas (Dlyan O'Brien), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), Minho (Ki Hong Lee), Frypan (Dexter Darden), and Winston (Alexander Flores), the remaining survivors from the maze, and now are in a city made of steel, and now prisoners.
The script is good but not perfect, it doesn't deliver like the first film did, i will get into that later; but now lets talk about the actors. The actors all acted well, they were believable in their parts, which formed a connection and made the film very watchable. Dylan O'Brien nailed it, his performance is top notch, this actor will go far in his career, not saying much about his Teen Wolf MTV series that he is in now, because as performance goes this guy is far better than the other cast members on Teen Wolf. Lets dive right in the supporting performances, these actors were pretty good lets start with Teresa (Kaya Scodelario)played her part well, she was in the first film, and the actress really played Teresa so good that when she betrayed Thomas, it really hurt, didn't like the way it came to be, but it did and it was done well. Another supporting actress which all of you horror fans should know of her, Lili Taylor (Mary) the leader of the Right Arm. She was the possessed mom in the conjuring film, you know the one that scared the hell out of you for days. Anyway i love this actress, she really played a great faction organizer. A huge shout to Giancarlo Esposito (Jorge), and Rosa Salazar (Brenda), the two characters in the film that i really enjoyed, they made the film flow, their connections were wonderful, and to me, connections make up a great story. I did not mention the other actors, because although they did well, i only focused on my favorites.
Special effects are great to the acting but, now i will hit the negatives for this little film, the issue i have is the story, i know the story has an ending, this was the second part and there is more to be told, but this story had to many problems, i will go over some of them so please bare with me, if you dare. The devastation hit the world, OK i get that but how did it happen? Did a mad scientist experiment on a human and somehow the subject escaped and killed a lot of people. Was the flare so strong that it killed, effected millions, or did the human beings that were effected, known as cranks become zombie like over time. Mary the leader of the Right Arm had told Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) that the flare was a virus, and they had to find the generation that was immune to the virus, and the way to do that was to take a large group of youths, sedate them, put them in some sort of sleep, and then extract the blood, DNA, what they needed, for the greater good of the human race. The film was vague, it went into the scorch a bit, so the world got hit, and the survivors of the maze from the last film, just found out how the world was effected, they run to a waste land, following Thomas because he was the one who saved them all in the first film, but yet only Newt questions him and that's it. Theresa shows some signs of confusion, but really. I guess if the buildings, power, everything was left alone for awhile, nature would take over, ten fold. That would explain the extreme lighting, that made sense but it still doesn't explain how the government was wiped out, and how did the factions like the Right Arm form, yes it was Thomas the one who started it all, but how did it happened? Did WCKD just take over? Was the ordeal so massive that only young kids around the world are taken, only the immune. I know there is another film coming out but the plot holes kill me. If your going to have a movie of this scale, you need to give the audience something more then the scorch, what happened how it happened, then by the final film the heroes get to resolve the problems at hand. If Thomas was so important, then why not capture him, since he was the one immune. The scientist had these hired armed men who were useless, because they let a bunch of untrained loud mouth kids take over a situation. If these armed men were so good, then why did Thomas always have the upper hand. Since the first film, the antagonists should've been careful with Thomas, knowing he would a problem, and a danger to the cause.
The film was based off of a book, the film fails to deliver the books message from what i hear from some of my friends that are avid fans of the Maze Runner series. I did not read the book, so my review will only be on the film, learning what the audience has learned so far from the story. A good story should have a beginning, middle and the end should be, well, awesome, exciting, sad. The Scorch Trails middle was great, but it had some missing elements. I would've like to see more of WCKD, there infrastructure, how they operated. The film only focused on Thomas and the survivors, which for a beginning it would be cool, but for a continued saga, nope sorry, but it doesn't work to well. A good example would be the first Maze Runner Thomas was almost always challenged throughout the story,the other characters knew something was up with Thomas and they questioned him, challenged him, it was almost sickening how much the protagonist was challenged. But, that's the point the good guy has to be challenged, if not there is no story. In the second film Thomas was a bad ass, the challenge was minimal, in fact the bad guys were kinda weak, the antagonists did not go through the motions, they only delivered when needed, and it wasn't enough. The Cranks (zombies) were cool, in fact the only opposition the survivors had were the cranks, these zombies were attacking hard and fast, almost reminds me of the Resident Evil films. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was a good film, but it was the best, and if the next film doesn't deliver the explanations, then the next film will not be as epic as the film makers wanted.
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