THE SCORCH TRIALS is an exciting action packed
sequel better
than THE MAZE RUNNER. It picks and
chooses what elements from the book it wants to have this movie that very
loosely follows the second novel in the THE MAZE RUNNER series. Even though
the narrative in the book makes
more sense, I like the movie better than book (where I still think the novel of
THE MAZE RUNNER is still better than the movie). It is always challenging
to adapt a novel
into a two hour movie and by giving more of a face to the bad guys of Wicked
(WCKD), it helps the narrative of the movie as Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his
friends from the maze must brave the scorch to get to the mountains while
running from the disease transformed Cranks and the soldiers of WCKD led by Mr.
Janson (Aidan Gillen) that hunt the ones immune to the Flare. THE SCORCH TRIALS
is a successful adaptation even though it doesn’t follow many parts of the
novel while having some scenes and characters that fans of the book will
recognize, but the screenwriter must condense any novel when turning it into a
screenplay as is the case with THE MAZE RUNNER and the scorch trials. If you
want movies that follow the books
closer, THE HUNGER GAMES series and the DIVERGENT trilogy follow the material
more successful than THE MAZE RUNNER movies do.
Many of the changes in the movies improve on the source material even
though a little longer movie could have fleshed out the new characters that
have very little character development (Brenda, Jorge, the Right Arm group, the
Scorch journey which is seen in the deleted scenes).
THE SCORCH TRIALS has some nice visuals
and special effects
along with great casting and a sweeping sci-fi music score. The landscape of
New
Mexico lends itself as a character to this sequel as
much as Georgia
did to THE MAZE RUNNER. I can’t wait for
the final movie (which 20th Century Fox wisely decided not to split
up the final book into two movies) even though the ending deviates from the
book ending, but I think THE MAZE RUNNER movies have to be treated as their own
separate thing from the novels.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The blu-ray disc has a great selection of extras.
In the feature audio commentary by Director Wes
Ball, Screenwriter
T.S. Newlin, Producer Joe Hendrick Jr, and Film Editor Dan Zimmerman, they
discuss how they had to fight to avoid the movie getting an R rating, why
changed many things from the book to make the adaptation work, and the story of
the movie among other things.
JANSON'S SECRET REPORT ties in with the early
parts of THE SCORCH TRIALS movie as the survivors from the maze are interviewed which is included in Janson's secret report.
18 minutes of deleted and extended scenes (with optional
commentary) feature several scenes cut for pacing reasons, but I do think they
could have kept some of the Scorch journey sequences in the movie
The 15 minute gag reel shows many line flubs,
stumbles,
actors forgetting their lines, messing around, and swearing when they forget
their lines.
SECRETS OF THE SORCH is a six part making-of
documentary
that features interviews with cast and crew, film clips, a set visit for author
James Dashner, and lots of behind-the-scenes footage:
THE SECOND CHAPTER BEGINS…- the challenges
presented to the
cast and crew making the sequel so fast as the sequel began production weeks
after THE MAZE RUNNER came out
CREATING A SCORCHED EARTH- production design
of the sequel
NEW FRIENDS AND
ENEMIES- focusing on the new cast members and the characters they play
SURVIVING THE SCORCH- the physical demands the
shoot put on
the cast
CREATING THE CRANKS- a behind-the-scenes look
at how they
created the Cranks
ON THE EDGE: CONSTRUCTING
THE SKYSCRAPER SEQUENCE- a look at making the skyscraper sequence
The Visual Effects Reel shows how much visual
effects were
involved in eight sequences from the movie while the visual Effects Breakdown
has optional commentary from Wes Ball on three effects sequences
Several concept art and storyboard galleries
Two theatrical trailers and previews for THE
MARTIAN,
SPECTRE, PAPER TOWNS, ME AND EARL AND
THE DYING GIRL, THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED, TEEN WOLD Season 4, and HITMAN: AGENT
47
THE SCORHC TRIALS is also in standard definition
on DVD
along with a code to download and/or stream a digital HD Ultraviolet copy of
the movie
FINAL ANALYSIS:
I
liked THE SCORCH TRIALS as an adaptation more than I liked the adaptation of
THE MAZE RUNNER as the movies drift more from the original novel source
material. The extras are fantastic and
worth watching if you want to learn about the making of the movie and see what
scenes they cut.
This
review is ©12-21-2015
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
to feedback@enterline-media.com
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