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Earlier this summer, composer John Paesano recorded his score to the sci-fi sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. The film adaptation of the second book in the popular young adult series was directed by Wes Ball, who directed the first film, and ScoringSessions.com is thrilled to bring our readers photos from the scoring sessions that took place at 20th Century Fox!
http://scoringsessions.com
Enjoy!
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Thanks for sharing!
I must say I was very impressed by the first film. The young cast was fantastic, it was very well directed, and the score was quite effective. In this young adult sci-fi genre, I actually preferred it to the original Hunger Games film. My main disappointment was that the wonderful theme which appeared during the end credits was pretty much nowhere to be found during the film proper, but I guess big themes during the film are seen as old-fashioned, distracting, and manipulative nowadays!
The sequel was very exciting and also quite competently done, though the new characters weren't fleshed out nearly as well as the characters in the first film. I gather many changes were made to the storyline compared to the book, unlike the first film, but as I haven't read the book I wasn't horribly bothered. Once again, the end credits featured that same fantastic theme which still sadly failed to show up at any point during the film itself.
Yavar
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I also enjoyed the first film, much more than I expected to (I was expecting a cheap Hunger Games knock-off).
However, about half way through this one (after the lightning storm, when they arrive at the gangs' lair) I started to lose all interest as it seemed to morph into Falling Skies or some Sci-Fi channel style series. I'm also sick to death of zombies now!!
The music did stand out a few times though (as it did during the first one).
Some exciting riffs amongst the standard MV/RC progressions.
I believe there is one more film due, but I think I will watch it on telly instead. The good will for this series has gone, so a trip to the cinema is off.
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First of all I must mention, I have not seen any of the films nor have I read any of the books but was curious about John Paesano as a new composer, was curious about the genre of YA/sci-fi/franchise in general so I checked out the first score a few years back to The Maze Runner.
At the time, I was seriously underwhelmed. I knew he was new on the scene and had some growing to do so I took that into consideration. The Maze Runner was competent and certainly had some very good tracks, but overall it was what I considered a weak effort and didn't hold up very well. Maybe had I seen the film I would've appreciated the score more, but that never happened.
So I never really had much inclination to check out The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials sequel score, because I had no reason to think that it would be any better or different, and I hadn't heard any other music by the composer since the original score. I just pretty much dismissed this sequel score until just recently when, out of sheer curiosity and chance and on a whim I decided to check it out and WOW John Paesano has grown as a composer! Now this is a truly high-quality, exciting science-fiction score with depth. It's actually remarkable the distance in quality between the two scores in the series but I'm so happy that I took a chance on this sequel score because it is fantastic!
This sequel score takes on so many new dimensions absent in the first score: layered and impressive use of electronics, suitably integrated; much better writing in general; extraordinarily exciting action material; the use of female vocals. The one thing still lacking in the sequel score that was missing in the first score (that Yavar mentioned in his post) was thematic material maybe hinted at, but not developed or united to tie the scores together in any satisfying or cohesive (or noticeable) manner.
I strongly disagree with Kev McGann; the material here is very far removed from what some describe as "standard" Remote Control-sounding material or progressions. I think this score mostly has its own identity and is very distinctive.
Overall, highly recommended!
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