MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS DVD (2015)
SYNOPSIS: They have escaped from the maze but Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers now face a greater challenge: searching for clues about the secret organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate wasteland filled with unimaginable dangers. The mystery deepens at every turn as the Gladers work together to discover their purpose and battle to survive in this must-see, electrifying adventure.
MOVIE REVIEW:
If you have yet to watch The Maze Runner, fret not you didn’t missed much. The good news is you don’t even need to catch the first one in order to catch the sequel, The Scorch Trails because it’s just another instalment featuring a group of youngsters running.
As a YA dystopia action movie, it functions perfectly and is easily accessible to almost everyone. It has a handsome charming young lead in the form of Dylan O’Brien as Thomas who not only leads a group of fellow comrades out of a terrifying maze but also one step away from finding out what the WCKD actually is. Despite running at 131 minutes, the pacing is remarkable swift and it offers significant thrills in the form of zombified humans dubbed Cranks.
But there is one major gripe about The Maze Runner series; it continues to keep the audience in suspense refusing to reveal the purpose of WCKD and what actually happened to the entire human race. From what I heard the screenplay by T.S. Nowlin has taken a new route as compared to the original novel by James Dashner. But do rest assured the entire journey is never dull as director Wes Ball kept his young cast members on their toes at all times, only stopping occasionally to deliver some emotionally wrenching moments and the appearances of a new villain, Mr Janson (Aidan Gillien).
New characters Brenda (Rosa Salazar), Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito), Mary Cooper, a former WCKD scientist (Lili Taylor) and the leader of the resistant army, Vince (Barry Pepper) are introduced to the original group which consists of Minho (Lee Ki Hong), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), clearly some characters are fillers at this point as this episode is merely a buildup to a bigger warfare in the coming instalments.
It’s subjective whether you appreciate a movie with not much of an opening or ending to talk about. You just have to hang on for the final conclusion. At the very least, it has an engaging cast, some nice CGI and action sets to keep things running.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
There are 16 Deleted Scenes and Extended Scenes with Optional Commentary by Director Wes Ball, Screenwriter T.S. Nowlin, Producer Joe Hartwick Jr and Film Editor Dan Zimmerman, a 15 minutes Gag Reel, Concept Art and Storyboards galleries and Trailers.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
With the exception of some soft CGI shots, the visual presentation is generally solid and sharp. Dialogue is clean and there is a generous amount of dynamic panning sound effects to put you right into the action.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD RATING :
Review by Linus Tee
