Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Burning Desert
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German title | Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Burning Desert | ||
| Original title | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | ||
| Country of production | United States | ||
| original language | English | ||
| Publishing year | 2015 | ||
| length | 131 minutes | ||
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 14 |
||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Wes Ball | ||
| script | TS Nowlin | ||
| production |
Ellen Goldsmith-Vein , Wyck Godfrey , Marty Bowen , Lee Stollman |
||
| music | John Paesano | ||
| camera | Gyula Pados | ||
| cut | Dan Zimmerman | ||
| occupation | |||
| |||
| chronology | |||
| |||
Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Burning Desert (Original title: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials ) is an American science fiction film directed by Wes Ball from 2015 . The screenplay, based on the novel The Chosen by James Dashner , was written by TS Nowlin . The film represents the second part of the The Chosen Trilogy, from which the first part, Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Labyrinth , was released in 2014 . As in the first part, Dylan O'Brien , Thomas Brodie-Sangster , Ki Hong Lee , Kaya Scodelario and Patricia Clarkson played the leading roles.
The film was released in American cinemas on September 18, 2015 and in German cinemas on September 24, 2015.
action
The film begins with a flashback in which you can see how Thomas is handed over to the WCKD (World Chaos Disaster Department) by his mother as a young boy. The main plot begins immediately at the end of the first part: After Thomas and his friends have escaped the labyrinth, they are taken to a facility controlled by a man named Janson. He explains to them that they are safe with him and gives them clothes and food. In addition to them, there are many other young people who also seem to have escaped from labyrinths. You will be medically examined in the laboratory. Janson asks Thomas what things he can remember from his time at WCKD. However, Thomas knows little about it. Some of the inmates are separated from the others. Allegedly they are being taken away from the station to an area where they no longer have to be interned. Teresa is also isolated from the group to be examined more closely in a hospital ward.
Thomas quickly becomes suspicious and finally finds out, together with the loner Aris Jones, that the young people were not taken away, but are hanging lifelessly on tubes in a huge laboratory. He sees that Ava Paige, leader of WCKD, is still alive contrary to Thomas's assumption and that Mr. Janson is working for her. He overhears a conversation in which Paige and Janson are concerned about a resistance organization called "Right Arm". Thomas learns from the conversation that all of his friends in the quarters are to be anesthetized in order to then take certain substances from them. He returns to the quarters and persuades his friends Minho, Newt, Pan and Winston to flee the complex. On the way to the infirmary, where they don't want to leave Teresa, they are discovered and free Teresa. Aris shows them a way on which they finally reach the fire desert. You start looking for the “right arm”.
The group looks for shelter in an abandoned and half-destroyed shopping center, but comes across cranks - people who have become a kind of zombies as a result of the fire virus . One of the cranks infects Winston, but everyone in the group manages to escape. The next morning, they see the ruins of an abandoned city and discover that WCKD is still looking for them. Winston, whose infection has worsened, wants to be left behind by the group and shoots himself to avoid becoming a crank. The rest of the group pushes further into the desert, and as night falls, they set up camp in the open air. From there you can see lights on the horizon. As they set off there, a violent thunderstorm is approaching. Minho is struck by lightning but survives. They seek shelter in an abandoned building. Shortly afterwards, they are shocked to find that there are numerous cranks in their quarters - “watchdogs” of a group of people led by a man named Jorge.
Jorge and his protégé, the battle-hardened Brenda, learn from Thomas that the group is looking for the “right arm”. The group around Jorge is not friendly towards the newcomers, but wants to hand them over to WCKD for a fee. But Jorge sees a chance to join the “right arm”. Jorge and Brenda decide to leave their own group behind to set off for the mountains with the youngsters. However, a traitor from Jorge's group informs WCKD. Shortly afterwards, the building was stormed under Janson's direction. On the run, the group is separated: While Minho, Newt, Pan, Aris and Teresa get out of the building with Jorge, Thomas and Brenda have to go through underground passages after a fight against men from WCKD. They meet a group of cranks who are chasing them. You get outside. As Thomas escapes through ruins made of steel and concrete, Thomas cannot prevent Brenda from being attacked and infected by one of the cranks. Together, Brenda and Thomas finally escape and look for Jorge's ally, Marcus, with whom they hope to find the rest of the group. From there it seems possible to reach the “Safe Harbor”, a place beyond the fire desert, free from the risk of infection.
In a ruined city, which is inhabited by humans, they find the headquarters of Marcus. There they are invited to a party and have to have an intoxicating drink at the entrance. At the party, Thomas and Brenda get closer until he remembers Teresa and rejects Brenda. As the potion begins to work, Thomas remembers how he once worked on the labyrinth test with Teresa for WCKD and tried to convince her that the tests were illegitimate and dissuade her from continuing to work. When the WCKD people realized this, they were sent to the labyrinth separately from each other.
When Jorge shows up with the rest of the group, it becomes clear that the man who offered Thomas and Brenda the drink is none other than Marcus. He wanted to sell the two to WCKD. Jorge interrogates Marcus and forces him to reveal the hiding place of the "right arm". With Marcus car you get to the nearby mountain range, where the "right arm" has set up an outpost. There they are arrested by two armed girls who also once lived in a maze. They recognize Aris, who was housed in their camp at the time. The girls take the group to their leader, Vince. When Brenda's health deteriorates rapidly due to the infection and Vince threatens to shoot her, Thomas opposes him and receives support from Mary Cooper, a doctor who once worked for WCKD but joined the resistance after an ethical disagreement with Ava Paige . The doctor explains that Thomas gave her information during his time at WCKD that was fundamental for the establishment of the resistance organization. Vince allows the doctor to treat Brenda. Mary Cooper explains to Thomas that the healing enzyme can only be obtained from an immune body. Thomas agrees to donate blood for Brenda. The blood can only slow the spread of the virus. Dr. Cooper informs Thomas that for this reason Brenda is not allowed to accompany the group on their way to the "Safe Haven". Brenda tells Thomas about her brother named George and it turns out that Thomas met him as Chuck in the labyrinth and he died here to save his life.
Teresa, whose memory is slowly returning after the treatment in the WCKD laboratory, recalls her previous life and the death of her mother, who was also infected. She internalized the phrase “WCKD is good”. She is convinced that the organization's course of action is the only right thing to do to contain the spread of the fire virus and to help as many people as possible. Teresa secretly notified WCKD. Janson then appears surprisingly with a fighting force in the mountains and attacks the camp of the "Right Arm". Vince's group seems lost. Thomas and the others take up the fight. Brenda and Jorge escape, but Thomas decides to face WCKD, which has captured the other members of the group.
Finally, Ava Paige also lands in a helicopter in the camp. There is a direct confrontation between her and Mary Cooper, in which Janson shoots the doctor. But with the unexpected help of Jorge and Brenda, who turn up in a military truck, Thomas can change the balance of power again. Thomas is determined not to fall into the hands of WCKD anymore. When Janson tries to kill Thomas, Brenda saves him and injures Janson in the process. He and Ava Paige are forced to retire, and Teresa willingly joins them. Minho is captured and dragged into a helicopter.
After the WCKD units have withdrawn, Vince and the other members of the group want to retreat deeper into the mountains to rebuild the “right arm”. But Thomas is determined to deliver the final blow to WCKD and kill Ava Paige. Newt tries to dissuade Thomas from this plan, but the latter convinces him and the remaining group members to go together with Vince and his remaining troops to liberate Minho.
background
At San Diego Comic Con in July 2014, director Wes Ball announced that filming for the second part of the film trilogy would begin in fall 2014, provided that the first part is a success. The starting shot for the sequel was given two weeks before the premiere of the first part, as the film was able to convince in the previews .
Filming finally began on October 27, 2014 in and around Albuquerque , New Mexico, and ended after 94 days on January 27, 2015.
The soundtrack to the film, composed by John Paesano , was released on September 11, 2015.
The zombie-like cranks were designed by the Luxembourg artist Ken Barthelmey.
The film was cut by a few scenes for German cinemas by 20th Century Fox in order to be approved for 12+. It was cut out for more than 1 minute. When the film for the home cinema market was checked again by the FSK at Fox's request, the uncut version was approved for ages 12 and over and was released without removing the scenes.
review
Like the first part, the film received mixed reviews, but this time with a clearly negative tendency. At Rotten Tomatoes, for example, he has an average rating of 48%, based on 129 professional reviews. At Metacritic , the average rating is 43%, based on 29 reviews. Most of the reviews consider the second part to be significantly weaker than the first.
In the New York Times, John Williams came to the conclusion that The Scorch Trials “could not add anything new to the dystopian genre that could not be killed”, but was at least “less cumbersome than its predecessor”. The "many chases and crazy, narrow escapes" released "a good amount of adrenaline". In USA Today , Brian Truitt judged that a "completely clichéd scenario" worked perfectly and that the film offered a "satisfactory, teen-friendly combination of rebellion, politics, science and a lot of running" for the "large audience". The best thing about the whole franchise is the group of three of O'Brien, Brodie-Sangster and Lee, the former proving to be "one of the more interesting representatives of Hollywood's young men"; the best addition in Part 2 is Giancarlo Esposito. The fact that the viewer is left in the dark about the geographical location of the fire desert is only "a minor defect" and the "action, the tension and the surprising twists and turns of the film" are suitable for "film fans of all ages".
Michael Ranze wrote in the film service about a "dark dystopia that connects ' Quiet Earth ' ... with ' The Road ' ..., ' Planet of the Apes ' ... with ' The Night of the Living Dead '". The "stylistic unity of part one" is transformed into "a hodgepodge of genres ranging from end-time dystopia to war films, from horror to westerns, from science fiction to action films". Ranze complained that "not only the grip of the characters is lost", "but also the density of the individual plot elements, which are disparately strung together"; many things turn out to be "too arbitrary and too non-binding" and the "final showdown" also states "again properly with show values", but seems "overloaded and pompous". Martin Schwickert attested that the film had “typical weaknesses in the middle section” in epd Film . Without "narrative production of meaning", the main characters would be "rushed from one location to the next in what feels like a quarter of an hour", and while Schwickert admitted that "production designers and pixel masters ... have done a good job", he complained about the "lack of acting ties of leading actor Dylan O '" Brien and his young colleagues ”.
In the Hollywood Reporter , Justin Lowe found that the Scorch Trials lacked the “originality and urgency” of their predecessor and that it was instead endowed with “well-known characterizations” and a “hesitant pace”. He criticized the increasing deviation from the original book in favor of an “action-adventure format that will probably not find the same degree of broad recognition”. The attempt to close “gaps in the plot”, which in the first part had only just created the characteristic “veil of mystery”, ironically harmed the film rather than helping it. Lowe also criticized screenwriter Nowlin for not presenting the background story convincingly enough. This "lack of accuracy" is distracting, but does not cover the plot, which "essentially consists of a coherent series of car chases". The changed environment of the main characters seems rather harmless compared to the first part and takes the whole thing to a tension, whereby it is neglected to "gradually increase the stakes". Leading actor O'Brien gave Lowe a degree of "unwavering equanimity" that has "barely developed" since the first film and is "more on restraint than showing feelings". The "steely" Ava Paige Clarksons show a "completely impersonal", almost "theoretical" antagonism. Director Wes Ball uses "drama, thriller and horror genre" and tries to maintain engagement through "different combinations of threats and distinctive stylistic treatment" for each setting; while “visual diversity” is added, the technology is “incoherent” and ensures an episodic character that “only sporadically develops a driving force”. Dorrance's "impressive set design" is a little impaired by the "partially inconsistent visual effects".
continuation
In March 2015 it was confirmed that a film adaptation of the novel The Chosen - In the Death Zone , the third and final volume of the The Chosen trilogy, was in the early stages. TS Nowlin and Wes Ball both keep their roles as scriptwriters and directors in the third part of the film series. The film was released in Germany on February 1, 2018.
Web links
- Maze Runner - The chosen ones in the fire desert in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Maze Runner - The chosen ones in the fire desert in the German dubbing index
Individual evidence
- ↑ Certificate of Release for Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Burning Desert . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2015 (PDF; test number: 154 192 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Burning Desert . Youth Media Commission , accessed on September 27, 2015 .
- ↑ Peter Sciretta: The Maze Runner Sequel The Scorch Trials Concept Art Revealed [Comic Con 2014 ] ( English ) slashfilm.com. July 25, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- ↑ Maze Runner 2: The Chosen in the Burning Desert . In: giga.de . Retrieved September 27, 2014.
- ↑ Maze Runner Official Twitter: Maze Runner: Scorch Trials begins filming ( English ) Twitter . October 27, 2014. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
- ↑ 'Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials' Movie Set PHOTOS: Dylan O' Brien And Kaya Scoldelario Done Filming Sequel, Actor Heads To Wrap Party ( English ) fashionstyle.com. January 27, 2015. Archived from the original on January 30, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
- ↑ Sony Classical to Release 'The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials' soundtrack . Retrieved September 10, 2015.
- ↑ http://theartofken.com/gallery/the-scorch-trials-22
- ↑ Maze Runner 2 will be released uncensored with FSK 12 on DVD / BD . In: schnittberichte.com, accessed October 30, 2017.
- ↑ Maze Runner - The chosen ones in the fire desert at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Burning Desert at Metacritic (English)
- ↑ John Williams: Review: 'Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials' Pits Hardy Teenagers Against a Mysterious Organization . In: The New York Times . September 18, 2015, p. C8 ( Online article [accessed on October 20, 2015] "'The Scorch Trials' adds nothing new to the unkillable dystopian genre, but it's at least less ponderous than its predecessor. The many chases and ludicrous narrow escapes offer respectable doses of adrenaline." ).
- ↑ Brian Truitt: Review: 'Scorch Trials' heat up 'Maze' series. In: USA Today . Gannett Company , September 17, 2015, accessed on October 28, 2015 (English): “a completely clichéd scenario totally works in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials… Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers find a satisfying, teen- friendly way to combine rebellion, politics, science and a lot of jogging for a broad audience ... O'Brien, Brodie-Sangster and Lee again are the best aspects of the franchise ... the threesome has a great chemistry. O'Brien also proves he's one of Hollywood's more interesting leading boy-men… Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) is the best new addition to the Maze Runner world… It's hard to get a sense of geography of the place… With the bigger sense of scale in the sequel, however, viewers are left wondering about the details not addressed. It's a minor quibble and one easily set aside, considering that Maze Runner's action, suspense and twists give movie fans of all ages a chance to embrace their inner on-the-run teenager. "
- ↑ Michael Ranze: Maze Runner - The chosen ones in the fire desert . In: Filmdienst . No. 19 , 2015 ( online article [accessed October 20, 2015]).
- ↑ Martin Schwickert: Review of Maze Runner - The Chosen in the Fire Desert. In: epd film . September 18, 2015, accessed October 28, 2015 .
- ↑ Justin Lowe, 'Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials': Film Review. The Hollywood Reporter , September 7, 2015, accessed on October 20, 2015 (English): “The second installment… lacks a similar sense of originality and urgency, undercut by overly familiar characterizations and dilatory pacing… this imperative increasingly diverges from the realm of speculative fiction that forms the basis of the book series in favor of an action-adventure format that may not offer the same degree of wide appeal ... A significant portion of The Scorch Trials is devoted to filling in the narrative gaps essential to maintaining the veil of mystery that characterized The Maze Runner and the Gladers' ignorance ... Ironically, as more facts emerge, they tend to undermine the storyline rather than reinforce it ... TS Nowlin can't manage to convincingly frame the backstory ... While distracting, this lack of specificity doesn 't hold back the plot, which essentially becomes an interconnected series of chase scenes ... dodging Cranks and slogging across sand dunes seem fairly routine b y comparison, noticeably reducing tension for the Gladers, while neglecting to systematically raise the stakes… O'Brien imbues the role of Thomas with a degree of determined stoicism that appears little evolved since the franchise's first installment, relying more on withholding emotion than displaying it ... Clarkson's steely Ava Paige provides timely details on the reasons behind their incarceration, but her antagonism remains so impersonal it's almost theoretical ... Cinematically, Ball attempts to sustain engagement by providing each successive setting with a different combination of threats and distinctive stylistic treatment, borrowing from drama, thriller and horror genres. While the technique adds visual diversity, it's not particularly cohesive, lending the sequences a distinctly episodic quality that only fitfully builds momentum, an impression reinforced by sometimes-inconsistent visual effects that detract from Daniel T. Dorrance's otherwise imaginative production design. "
- ↑ Ross A. Lincoln: 'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' Release Moved To 2018 As Dylan O'Brien Recovers . In: Deadline.com . May 27, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
