A Scorching Sequel

Posted on by RoseIW

I’ll admit, I published these a little out of order, but I was so excited by the hints at the third film that I figured the review of the second could wait a little longer! But, without further ado, here it is…

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Trilogies.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the middle film in a trilogy is often considered to be the weakest. A filler between the introductory first film and the climax of the third.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, I applaud you. You have broken away from ‘middle film syndrome’ to become one of the hottest films of 2015.

Following the events of The Maze Runner, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his friends from the Glade are thrust once more into danger by the organisation known as WCKD, all in the name of a cure for the brain-rotting virus, The Flare, which is eating away at people’s humanity and turning them into little more than living corpses. Scary ones.

But WCKD’s methods are somewhat controversial. They insist that the key to a cure is an enzyme found in the brains of the young – the Immune – and are set on harvesting it to further experiment. Naturally, Thomas and co. won’t stand for this, and they escape into what’s left of the world outside WCKD’s compounds: the Scorch.

For fans of the books, of which I am one, a lot of changes to the story have been made. Some plot points are missing, some have been added and others have been twisted almost beyond recognition; but each change that has been made is set to marry up with the events of the third book so beautifully that it’s hard to disagree with the reasoning.

The film is high on action and low on dialogue. This could have proved detrimental to character development, and with a lesser cast it might have done, but instead it gave the actors a chance to fine-tune their characters through their actions, which spoke far louder than their words.

O’Brien as Thomas is every inch the action hero. He’s lost the innocence he had in the first film, as Thomas battles his way across the Scorch. Ki-Hong Lee as the sassy Minho also deserves a mention, stealing more than one scene with his witty interludes.

The stand-out performance, though, comes from Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt. A master of subtlety, Brodie-Sangster can say more with one look than many actors can in an entire film.

It is when O’Brien, Lee and Brodie-Sangster are together, though, that the film is at its strongest. A trio of formidable young actors with a strong off-screen friendship that translates beautifully to their characters, it is almost impossible to take your eyes off them whenever they appear together on-screen.

That’s not to say the rest of the cast isn’t strong; it is. There are some sterling turns, particularly from Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge and Rosa Salazar as Brenda, not forgetting the suitably sleazy Aiden Gillen as Janson.

As a stand-alone film, this is a league above the second installments of The Hunger Games and Divergent. But the real telling point will be the third and final film – The Death Cure, set for release in February 2017 – when we see how Wes Ball has finished adapting the trilogy for the big screen.

Will the changes he made in The Scorch Trials’ transition from page to screen be resolved and justified in The Death Cure? Or will they lead to bigger, bolder changes with which even the most die-hard film fans will struggle to get on board?

It could go either way…

5 ‘Scorch Trials’ Hints At Heartbreak…

Posted on by RoseIW

WARNING: Contains MAJOR spoilers for The Scorch Trials (film) and The Death Cure (book) – if you don’t want to find out what happens on ‘page 250’, turn back now. You have been warned!

It’s rare for me to leave a cinema as hyped up as I walked in, but Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials delivered a middle-of-the-franchise film that ticked all my boxes, and then some.

I’m a huge fan of the book series, and I had heard mixed reviews from other fans about all the changes introduced in the Scorch Trials film. Director Wes Ball had prepared fans in advance, stating that the second film contained elements of the third book, and some straight-up changes, that would all come good in the third and final – at last, a trilogy that will remain a trilogy! – film.

Clutching the obligatory ice-cream sundae, I stepped into the cinema torn between excitement and trepidation…

I loved every buggin’ second.

The two hours and eleven minutes out in the Scorch flew by, and every shucking member of the cast pulled me hook, line and sinker along with them on their respective journeys as they fought for their lives in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that had once been America.

Scorch Trials - NewtIt’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I am a huge Newt fan. And when I first saw The Maze Runner, the casting of Newt was the one thing that was set to make or break my opinion of the adaptation. If I could have cast the character, I would have chosen Thomas Brodie-Sangster to take the role, and would have settled for no-one else.

How fortunate for me that the casting team felt the same way!

Naturally, then, it was Newt I focused on in The Maze Runner and Newt I watched even more intently in The Scorch Trials. Because, as any trilogy fan will know, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (and Dylan O’Brien) will have the most challenging, gut-wrenching and shocking scene in the entire series to contend with in The Death Cure. A scene that will be all the more powerful for their off-screen friendship. A scene that sent book fans everywhere into meltdown. A scene that, according to his Twitter, disappointed James Dashner’s own daughter.

The dreaded ‘Page 250’

And from the look of The Scorch Trials, Wes Ball doesn’t plan to disappoint. Throughout the film, the hints at what’s coming are numerous – some obvious, some less so – and it leaves me feeling wholly confident in the third film.

Surprisingly, though, some of my friends hadn’t noticed some of the more subtle foreshadowing, so here, for them, are my five hints at heartbreak…

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Number 1: The most obvious – Crank Newt.
During his drink-induced hallucinations, Thomas sees the late Winston, infected with the Flare, before turning to find himself faced with a Flare-ridden Newt. The scream that leaves our hero is quite something. And the sight of Newt infected so badly was not one I was expecting in The Scorch Trials.

Although I must admit, seeing fans freaking out because they thought his death had been brought forward…that was quite something!

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Number 2: Giving Winston the Gun.
When Winston begs to be left behind and allowed to kill himself, Newt is the one to hand him the gun. He doesn’t even question it. This is doubly poignant for book fans, who know how Newt got his limp: Newt himself once tried to commit suicide, in the Maze, and was dragged to safety by Alby. To see him acting as an agent in someone else’s suicide made me shiver.

But it also gave a nod to Newt’s own eventual fate. Winston only relied on Newt to hand him the gun. Newt will rely on Thomas to fire it.

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Number 3: “Apparently not all of us…”
Teresa’s line may seem innocent enough, a plot device to explain that not all of them are Immune. But why was that line given to her, and not to someone else? Surely they must all have come to the same conclusion with the infection of Winston?

And even if they hadn’t, she surely could have said simply: “Apparently not.”

The addition of “All of us” and the later revelation that she has, in fact, had her memory restored, make me think that perhaps she has remembered more than we are ever told. Maybe she knows exactly who’s Immune…and who isn’t.

Either way, when Newt inevitably succumbs to the Flare, the explanation has been given already. The perfect set-up to the perfect death scene.

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Number 4: “Thanks, Tommy…”
In the books, Newt calls Thomas by the nickname ‘Tommy’ almost from day one. In the films, the lack of that nickname in the first film had fans up in arms – and perhaps that’s why, in the second installment, it has been slipped in as often as possible, most noticeably when Thomas saves Newt from the Cranks and then, later, when they are talking about their lost friends from the Maze.

But something tells me it’s not just been included for the fans. It’s been included as a set-up to the third film.
Three words: “Please, Tommy. Please.”

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Number 5: “It will buy her some time.”
“Is it a cure?” Thomas asks of Mary, as she injects a blue liquid – an enzyme extracted from the brain of an Immune – into Brenda.
“Not exactly,” replies Mary.

She goes on to explain that it doesn’t cure the virus, just slows the spread of it, buys the victim some time.

Cast your mind back to the beginning of the film…when Minho was on the treadmill, Thomas was having a blood test and Newt was being injected with a ‘cocktail’ of vitamins and minerals, everything he’d been deprived of in the Maze.

Now think back to the colour of that liquid. In a tray filled with tubes of rust-coloured liquid, there was one tube that stood out. The one from which the doctor took the liquid for Newt’s injection.

It was blue.

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I think I’ll leave it there…