Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Ki Hong Lee, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Dexter Darden, Patricia Clarkson, Alexander Flores, Jacob Lofland, Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Terry Dale Parks, Lili Taylor, Barry Pepper, Nathalie Emmanuel, Alan Tudyk,
Directed by: Wes Ball
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Mystery, Science Fiction
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After escaping the Maze, the group faces new dangers as they navigate an unknown world full of enemies and danger.

Review:

Tim: After being shocked by how much I enjoyed 2014's The Maze Runner, I was very excited for the sequel. The original movie was compelling, exciting, and entertaining. I'm surprised once again- this time, though, by how much of a quality drop occurred during the course of one film. The original movie proved these young adult focused post-apocalyptic movies could be engaging pieces of entertainment outside of the Hunger Games franchise. Unfortunately, the second film crashes the budding franchise back to reality. This is about as ho-hum affair as you'll see. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials isn't a terrible movie, but it's still quite disappointing.

Part of what made the first film so compelling was the powerful simplicity of the plot. A group of kids awakens in a mysterious,dangerous maze and they try to escape. That's all I need to know- I got it, let's go. This film takes it's eye off the simplicity. There is WCKD, there's these other factions that may be good or bad. There's a city, and some desert, and this group in the mountains. It's all so complex and it made me long for the beautiful simplicity of the first story. This sequel brings back the same cast and the same director, so the blame has to come from the screenplay. I haven't read the novels by James Dashner, but I did read that this film was a big departure from the source material. I have no idea if the departure was because the book was garbage, or if the departure was where things fell apart. Something in the story is completely off, though. We're thrown into this world with a much larger cast (many of them not all that interesting in their own right). It feels like there's all these subplots and minor characters, and in the midst of all this, they forget to tell us why any of it matters or why we should care. I shook this film off effortlessly- there's nothing memorable about it.

The cast was fine, but they got swallowed up in the complexity of the story. Dylan O'Brien was fine, but seemed much less effective in the hectic plot. Kaya Scodelario got the short end of the stick here- she was one of the better parts of the original film but mostly disappears from the story here. That was a bit bizarre to me. Ki Hong Lee and Thomas Brodie-Sangster had their roles diminished as well (you had to make room for the multitude of new characters). It boggles my mind that the most interesting characters from the original film are all given smaller roles this time, to make way for all the new characters, none of whom are more engaging than the original cast. That's a major flaw. Giancarlo Esposito was fine- I like him from "Breaking Bad", but his role is significantly inflated. He's not nearly interesting enough as a character to account for all his screen time. The same thing can be said for Aidan Gillen- I love his work on "Game of Thrones" and he makes a worthwhile antagonist, but why do we have so much time with him? Patricia Clarkson was fine, but even she feels pushed to the side here. Lili Taylor and Barry Pepper were fun to see, but they ultimately make little impact on the film. I like Alan Tudyk, but his role was mostly pointless and it ate up too much of the film's run time. All in all, there were so many poor choices about how much time we spent with the characters that it effectively sinks the film.

Now, while I was disappointed in The Scorch Trials, it's certainly not all bad. There are some exciting sequences. The scenes in the knocked over skyscraper are pretty intense. There's some interesting mysteries early on in the film that keep us somewhat intrigued by the story (eventually, we get answers to our questions and they are surprisingly unoriginal). There's a few decent moments in the desert scenes. There's a couple of unexpected twists that work to some extent. While the quality of the film is certainly below the original, this is still a fairly decent movie overall.

I do want to say that I was mildly disappointed after learning more about what this film series is "about". Part of the intrigue in the original was the major mystery- why were these kids in the maze? What was it all about? We find out more here and it feels very disconnected from the first film. I had to keep trying to remind myself what the maze had to do with what I was seeing on screen (honestly, I'm still a bit confused). When we get answers to some of our questions, they feel played out. Nothing in this film felt fresh or original. The first film created this exciting mystery and this film revealed that behind the mystery wasn't anything all that exciting. I feel a bit like seeing the Wizard behind the curtain.

While I was really into The Maze Runner, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials caused this franchise to plummet in my eyes. I'll watch the next movie since I'm already invested, but I have little to no enthusiasm for it. This sequel doesn't work and it slams the brakes on something that could have been very entertaining.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Maze Runner