MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS – The Review

TM and © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.  All Rights Reserved.

By Cate Marquis

The second in a trilogy based on the young adult science fiction series, MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS picks up where the first one left off. The sequel gets Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and friends from point A to point B, that is, across the burnt desert landscape known as the “Scorch,” with a few detours and twists along the way. Although they have left the maze behind, there is still lots of running.

The second installment has relatively few plot points, which leaves lots of time for chases, pursued by the wicked forces of WCKD or the zombie-like Cranks. The chases and battles take place in a variety of devastated landscapes, each filled with imaginative FX obstacles. This second movie reportedly follows the second book fairly closely but this installment may be the weakest book of the three. Still, fans will want to see the film anyway, to get to the final book. Anyone who was not hooked by the first Maze Runner (or did not see it) is unlikely to be drawn in by this sequel.

Thomas and the Gladers – Min Ho (Ki Hong Lee), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden), Winston (Alexander Flores) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) – arrive by the helicopter that rescued them at a military outpost headed by Janson (Aiden Gillen). Thomas is unsure about Jansan’s motives or even what the military facility is all about. The group is given bunks and food in a cafeteria with other kids from other mazes, awaiting some kind of reassignment. Thomas is wary Janson because Teresa has been separated from the group, without explanation. When a kid who has been at the facility awhile, Aris (Jacob Lofland), shows Thomas a hidden room with disturbing contents, it is time for them to get out of there. There goal is a rumored resistance camp on the other side of the desolate Scorch.

However, the journey is not a straight path, there are plenty of detours and back-tracking as they make their way to the hope-for goal of the resistance camp.

If you get tired of seeing characters running, running, running, this is not the film for you. The film is mostly a long race, from one danger to the next, interrupted by pauses to rest or by a battle, with an occasional looping back for some critical mission. Those who like non-stop action will be pleased.

The cast from the first film are back, including Patricia Clarkson as WCKD head Ava Paige. As Janson, Gillen seems to be doing a version of his smooth, slippery “Game of Thrones” character,  Lord Balish, but with an American accent (although his native Irish one keeps peeking through). Other new additions to the case include Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge, Rosa Salazar as Brenda, Lili Taylor as Mary and Barry Pepper as Vince.

The film meets the needed plot points to advance the story but most of the entertainment value rests on the many battles and chases in lavish special effects locations. The Gladers battle the forces of WCKD, but also the zombie-like Crank victims of the plague they are supposedly immune to, and a variety of sinister types in the lawless area of the Scorch. The kids travel through devastated landscapes, encountering an abandoned shopping mall buried under sand, a pair of broken city high-rise buildings teetering on collapse, and a factory taken over by hardened survivors. The heroes dangle over precipices, narrowly escape evil doers and navigate through a drug-laced party of shady survivors.

The effects are appropriately sweeping, including views of what looks like a wrecked San Francisco. The actors all do their parts well enough but no performance really transcends the material. Fans of young O’Brien should be pleased with his performance.

New characters are introduced (some only briefly), some established characters are lost, and seeming enemies turn out to be allies and vice versa.

Fans of the first film, or of the book series, will want to see Scorch Trials to get to the next chapter in the saga. Audience members who were not taken with the first one probably will not find much to hook them on the series with this second part.

MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS opens Friday, September 18.

OVERALL RATING: 2 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS