Sunday, October 4, 2015

Movie Reviews: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials & The Martian

It's getting harder to find time to do my hobbies these days.

I still haven't finished reading The Light Between Oceans. I haven't been watching the second season of How to Get Away with Murder. I haven't been posting my writings here... My weekdays are just sooo exhausting because there are sooo many things to do at school. The terrible traffic in Jakarta makes it even worse; it takes hours for me to reach my office from my house and vice versa. At the end of every day, I'm always super exhausted. I just have no strength to do anything. Thankfully, I manage to keep my weekends free from work-related thingy, so I can have some time to rest and do my hobbies, like today.

Today I want to write about the two movies that I saw recently: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and The Martian. Here are my thoughts on those two films.

MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS

This movie is adapted from James Dashner's novel, The Scorch Trials (read my review of it here) and the sequel to last year's The Maze Runner. As I wrote in my review of the book, the one thing that I don't like about it is how Thomas seems to obey WICKED. Luckily, the director of the movie adaptation, Wes Ball, seems to agree with me. He alters one part of the story (SPOILER ALERT! Thomas and his friends escape from the WICKED facility and go out to The Scorch instead of going to The Scorch because Janson tells them to do so) in the movie, which changes everything. This change keeps the burning spirit to reach freedom there. I like this a lot.

Top: Minho (Kihong Lee), Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) & Newt (Thomas Sangster)
Bottom: Harriet (Nathalie Emmanuel), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) & Brenda (Rosa Salazar)

Despite the major change that I mentioned above, there are sooo many differences between the book and the movie. Some fans might not like it, but I don't mind. To be honest, I like the story of the movie more haha. The action sequences are just as tense as the ones in the first movie. I think the Cranks chase scenes are the best ones; those scenes made me hold my breath for a long time! I love the settings too; they are grander than the ones in The Maze Runner. I miss The Glade, though. I just love the concept of The Glade haha. And I love the cast too, of course! Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scoelario, Thomas Sangster, Kihong Lee, Jacob Lofland, Rosa Salazar, Nathalie Emmanuel etc give such enjoyable performances.

Rating : 3,5/5

THE MARTIAN

The next movie is the one that I saw yesterday: The Martian. The movie is about a botanist named Mark Watney (Matt Damon) who is left alone in Mars because his crew thinks he is killed when an unexpected storm hits them during their expedition in the red planet. This movie is directed by Ridley Scott and full of great actors such as Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels etc.

The Martian is full of great actors, but Matt Damon is definitely the shining star in the movie

When I first read the synopsis of the film, I thought The Martian was going to be very emotional and full of dramatic death scenes like other astronaut movies, such as Interstellar and Armageddon. But it turns out that it is not like that at all. The Martian is surprisingly funny and enjoyable. Matt Damon's Watney is completely alone in Mars and has no one to talk to except his webcam, but he delivers so many hilarious monologues. I laughed a lot when I saw the movie yesterday.

Mark Watney is definitely the most interesting character in The Martian. I expected him to weep and get totally depressed in that planet because, dude, he is left alone in Mars! But he does not. Even when he first realizes that he is left alone in the red planet, he doesn't get panicked. Instead, he keeps thinking, uses his knowledge and solves the problems that come to him. I think this is a great approach and it makes The Martian different from other astronaut films. This also shows to us that the ones that matter are not the problems, but the way we choose to see and deal with them. Matt Damon definitely stands out in this movie. I love Jessica Chastain's and Kate Mara's characters too, though. Strong, brave and smart female characters always make me proud haha.

Rating : 4/5

2 comments:

  1. Good review. Mark Watney is the inspiration man in the movie. He said"Every human being has a basic instinct: to help each other out."

    For me, this is what we said "resilience"

    Look forward the next one!!!

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