The Scorch Trials

Eric Graham

The Scorch Trials

Did you ever want to see The Scorch Trials? I’ll answer for you. You don’t. While the first movie based off of the books, The Maze Runner, was pretty good and accurate, The Scorch Trials is a major disappointment. I’ve never seen a book or movie series take this bad of a turn. Basically the whole plot goes like this: Thomas and his friends get taken in by someone who wants to run tests on them. They must escape into the desert, where zombie-like creatures roam, and travel through a post-apocalypse city and continuously almost die. Really, the only good things about this movie are the cast and filming.

“Ok, so why is it that bad? Sounds quite interesting to me,” you might think in your silly little mortal head. As a whole, it’s not really that interesting, though there are some interesting parts. But they’re not good interesting, they’re bad interesting. To list a few: someone signals a whole bunch of helicopters from miles away without anyone a few yards away noticing? Logic. They out-run a thunderstorm, except for one guy who was right next to where lightning struck, and survived, without it impacting him at all after he started breathing again. The test-people take subjects every few weeks and leave the rest to just stay there and eat their food when they could take them all, thus get tests done faster and use less food. Cranks come out when it’s dark, not any time they could get a meal? What, light is worse than a lack of food? (This is basically how logic works for all zombies, but since that’s true, there’s nothing special here.) To sum it all up, it’s just another ordinary survival movie except that everything goes fine until the movie ends, logic is somewhat twisted, and there are very few parts that put a smile on your face. I’m not going to spoil what exactly happens, but let’s just say it was a really bad ending. I understand they’ve got to leave you hanging so you come back to watch the next movie but… I’m not sure I would want to, judging by how they made it.

“Yeah, ‘k, well it’s just supposed to be entertaining right?” R…r… Really, you must question me further, you mortal?! Fine. It is entertaining in some parts, but it takes quite a while to get to those parts. Some are just plain boring. About half of the movie is used on them walking and hiding and sleeping. Then they walk some more and they fight cranks (the zombie things) and then they somehow keep going without anything to eat. Then they are all like “Hey, we’re almost there” even though they hardly know where they are going. Then they get there, then…. IT’S KINDA BORING!!! I mean, I could be writing a review telling people not to watch it instead of watching it myself, for goodness’ sakes.

“Well yeah, isn’t the book pretty much the sam--” …. NO. NO, it’s not! The book was much better. In the book people’s faces got melted off by heat-seeking metal balls while they ran through a completely dark tunnel. Then Thomas got captured by a group of girls who also went through the Maze (Thomas’ group was purely boys). Then at the end, they all almost got eaten (or fried? Something like that; I can’t remember) by huge monsters that came out of the ground and encircled them. None of that super-exciting stuff happens in the movie. AND BEST OF ALL, Teresa doesn’t irrationally betray them like she does in the movie, though she still is kind of a jerk. Overall, while the movie is somewhat interesting, there isn’t much story or stuff happening, and if ever there is, those events don't live up to the book. It’s not “action-packed”, like the title suggests, being the title of the book, which did fit that description. The title The Scorch Trials holds two very different stories, depending on if you read the book or watch the movie.

It’s not even a trial, like in the book. It’s a trail, scorched by pain, death, and sorrow. It seems to me that the movie deserves the title The Scorched Trail, rather than The Scorch Trials. You can decide for yourself, though, if you watch it. But keep in mind, if you’ve read and remember the book series, you will be disappointed. Even if you haven’t, you have been warned. Don’t waste your time and/or money on this movie. Read the book instead.

Notes: Bad plot; -1.5, not much action; -0.5, not following the book; -1, horrible ending; -1, overall, 1 out of 5. The cast and filming are the only things keeping this movie from a total failure. Oh, and the music wasn’t bad either, but not anything at all memorable like LotR or Star Wars.

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