Not at all what it should have been

Rating: 3/10 (1 December 2015)

I was excited to see this movie. I loved the books and even hung in for the maze runner movie. yeah that one was a little off but the idea was the same, i mean the grievers were on bug-like legs instead of the slug-like appearance they were supposed to have, and the way they got to the control room was a bit different but it was smaller details. Scorch trials? a good way to make anyone who read the books hate it and anyone who didn't leave the theater with too many questions to even want to see the next. I saw this in theaters. I tried to keep an open mind. I knew from the previews that it was going to be a little different, i.e. the escaping from WCKD. But hey, I went to see it in hopes that it would be just a little setback. My god was i wrong. I went with my sister who had not read the books. She liked the movie, and I will agree, AS A MOVIE, it was good. Not fantastic, but watchable. When we left the theater, I was fuming, and she was in a confused daze. The first question she asked was why were there zombies in the sewers? GOOD QUESTION. yes the cranks were supposed to be crazy but not that. not by a long shot. The cranks were supposed to be people, they were supposed to have different stages in the levels of "gone-ness". Second question was what caused the virus? yeah that was not clear at all to anyone who hadn't read the books. i mean in the end of the maze runner they kind of said where the virus came from but that was about it. it didn't say that the virus made people lose all filters and more in their brains. In any movie, there is a point where you have a character explain something, usually to another character to prevent these kind of questions, but no. they dropped the gladers in the desert, told them there was a virus in the world and expected them to just run with it? Seriously? Next question was what caused the destruction of the world? another good question. Another part that should have been explained. The solar flares that cause the virus also caused the world destruction. now, as i said, i read the books. i tried to give the movie the benefit of the doubt. you know, watch it as a movie and try to see it's good points. no. if you are going to base a movie on a book, you do not cut out all the book, seriously. the only things that were kept the same was the scene where Brenda and Thomas got drugged at a rave and the lightning storm. little else followed. in maze runner, i was OK with them not keeping more of the gladers. there were supposed to be more than 10. but i will continue. the movie was not supposed to be escaping from wckd. the gladers were supposed to be told they were all infected and they had to survive the next trial to receive the cure. it is in the freaking title. The Scorch TRIALS. they were supposed to be shown that wckd controls a lot more than they let on, including manipulating reality. they were supposed to be tasked with going through a kind of transport-portal type thing to a pitch black tunnel. they were supposed to lose a person to these metal ball things and almost lose another but Thomas saves him. the scorch is not supposed to be survivable. at all. the kids are supposed to have a hard time walking in a straight line and to be covered from head to toe in cloth to block out the sun. oh and Theresa is not supposed to be with them. she is supposed to be taken before they go through the trans- flat thing. she is supposed to be seen in the scorch and Thomas is supposed to talk to her and see that wckd has some kind of control over her. not her flat out turning them in and expecting them to understand. honestly, I love the actor who played Jorge but i don't think he was a good fit for the character. that might be my own bias in seeing him in other things where he plays a spineless person but i digress. again with the cranks in the mall and sewers. they are not supposed to be zombies. and they have something growing in them? where the heck did that come from? in the book the group is only boys, the gladers and Aris, who is supposed to be someone no one but Thomas trusts. they were supposed to see tattoos on their necks and it is supposed to give an air of mystery, i mean Thomas' says "to be killed by b group" anyway, there are so many more things that i found wrong with this movie and i could talk about it for hours but i don't think anyone wants to hear that. i gave this a three because i love the actors and i do not blame them for this monstrosity of a film. they were the only good thing about it. oz