Movie Review: The Scorch Trials

So after the awesomeness that was The Maze Runner, I was super stoked to go see the sequel. I really loved this series way back when I read them and they did such an amazing job with the first movie. They stayed so true to the book and the story. The casting was perfection. So The Scorch Trials was bound to be just as epic if not more so right? 

Wrong. Oh my gosh. Let me just go on a rant about just how terrible this movie was. So I don't remember a lot from the book because it's been a few years since I read it, but as I'm watching the movie, I'm thinking "weird, some of it should be coming back to me right?" Well it probably would have if the movie had followed the book at all. Which it didn't. 

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE MAZE RUNNER AND THE SCORCH TRIALS: BOTH THE MOVIES AND THE BOOKS AHEAD!

If you've read the books you know that The Scorch is just the second phase of WCKD's testing. They weren't rescued from the maze. WCKD got them out and is now continuing their test. In the movie, this isn't mentioned AT ALL. Like it's not even a thing. The plot was just completely changed. In the book, Theresa is equipped with a tracker and has to do everything WCKD tells her to do or they will kill Thomas. In the movie she's just a back-stabbing bitch. The Cranks look just like zombies in the movie which I didn't really get that feel when reading the books. I mean, I knew they would be somewhat zombie like, but there was nothing that made them stand out as different. And now that the plot has changed so drastically, there's pretty much no hope for the third one. They've moved so far from the original plotline that it's going to be completely different. Honestly there was only one or two things in the movie that aligned with the books.

Setting aside the butchering of the original story, the movie itself was rather boring. It consisted of a few Gladers just running away from WCKD for about 2 hours. Literally, that's all that happens. They run from one place to another, but the plot doesn't advance at all. Oh right, that's because there is no plot because Wes Ball decided to completely throw James Dashner's work out the window and do whatever the fuck he wanted to. 

Dear Wes Ball, 

This series became a best-selling series for a reason. I understand that not everything will adapt well to screen, but you're an idiot if you think that changing the whole plot will make the movie better. There's a reason the books did so well and you took all those reasons and threw them out the window without a care in the world. James Dashner is the best-selling author, buddy. Not you. Your arrogance caused you to make a huge mistake here. I am definitely not going to see the third movie which I'm sure you will ruin just as badly as this one. 

Sincerely, 

An Angry Book Fan

You guys. I am so upset about this. It feels like a betrayal. Like he wanted to hook all the book fans so he kept the first one true to the books so we would all praise his name. And then he ripped all the illusions away with this one and left the shell of a story with characters who became flat in the second movie. We lost the amazingness that is Newt and Minho and Frypan. They were just accessories for Thomas as he freaks out over what to do. 

I know this review is all over the place. It's not really a review, more of a rant. And a warning. If you haven't seen it yet, don't waste your time or your money. This was less true to the books than Twilight was. Yep. I said it. The Scorch Trials was worse than Twilight. 

Have you seen the movie yet? Please rant with me over how terrible it was.