As far as 2014 was concerned, one of the biggest surprises
for me when it came to that year’s lineup of films was ‘The Maze Runner’, the
film adaptation of the first in a series of novels of the same name written by
James Dashner. I hadn’t read any of the books going in and given the usual
quality of young adult book-to-film adaptations not named ‘Harry Potter’ or
‘The Hunger Games’, suffice it to say I didn’t really go into this film with
‘high’ expectations. But at the end of the day, maybe that was the reason why I
ended up really liking it. As far as these kind of adaptations were concerned,
it was easily one of the better efforts from the genre. Having not known much
about the series beforehand, I found the first film to have a very engaging
mystery plot as well as a solid cast, genuinely tense action sequences, and an
overall excellent production design. Sure it may have ended on a truly obvious
‘sequel-baiting’ quote but the rest of the film was so compelling that I was
legitimately eager to see what happened next. And now, one year later, the
‘Maze Runner’ saga continues with ‘The Scorch Trials’, once again directed by
newcomer Wes Ball. This time around, our heroes are out of the Maze and now
find themselves in the dystopian world known only as ‘the Scorch’. The end
result is a film that admittedly lacks the same compelling plot of the first
‘Maze Runner’ but still manages to maintain a lot of its predecessor’s biggest
strengths.
At the end of ‘The Maze Runner’, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and
his fellow Gladers; Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario),
Minho (Ki Hong Lee), Frypan (Dexter Darden), and Winston (Alexander Flores),
managed to escape from the Maze that the organization known as WCKD had trapped
them in. But at the same time, they also learned that the Earth had been
ravaged by both a solar flare and a deadly virus also referred to as ‘the Flare’.
As ‘The Scorch Trials’ begins, Thomas and his friends are brought to a facility
full of kids who were also placed in Maze-like situations just like they were,
run by a man named Mr. Janson (Aiden Gillen) who tells them that there they’ll
be safe from WCKD, the Flare virus, and the zombified creatures known as Cranks
that spawned from it. But as Thomas and the others soon find out, Janson is
really a member of WCKD who, along with the head of the organization, Ava Paige
(Patricia Clarkson), are experimenting on those who are immune to the ‘Flare’ (e.g.
Thomas and his friends) in the hopes of finding a cure. This leads to Thomas
and the other Gladers escaping from the facility, as they must now traverse the
desolate landscape of ‘the Scorch’ in search of a resistance group known as
‘The Right Arm’ who might be able to help them stop WCKD.
Whereas the first ‘Maze Runner’ was confined to the titular
Maze and ‘the Glade’ that it surrounds in terms of its locales, ‘The Scorch Trials’
is allowed to expand on its post-apocalyptic universe, as is the usual case
with bigger-budgeted sequels. The production design is just as solid as it was
in the first film and the greater scale of it all allows us to get a much
greater sense of the world that this series creates. Ball’s direction is once
again superb and the film’s action sequences are solidly tense in execution.
Not only that, but the addition of the zombie ‘Cranks’ definitely gives this
film a much creepier atmosphere when compared to the previous film. But if there’s
one advantage that ‘The Maze Runner’ has over ‘The Scorch Trials’, it is that it
had a much more compelling plot. It may have had something to do with the fact that
I hadn’t read the book first but I was legitimately interested to find out who
put Thomas and his friends into the maze just as much as Thomas did. ‘The
Scorch Trials’, on the other hand, is a generally straight-forward ‘road’
story. As a result, the film actually kind of feels a bit aimless at times.
Not only that, but the film is rather lacking in terms of
character development. The main characters at least have the benefit of having
been already introduced and established in the first film. But even with that
said, some of the main characters sort of get ignored at times during the film
in favor of a greater focus on Thomas. Perhaps the biggest case of this is Teresa
who, without giving too much away, has a major bit of character development
during the final act of the film. Ultimately though, this crucial character
moment doesn’t really carry a lot of oomph to it given the fact that she’s been
rather absent for a good chunk of the film. But even with the lackluster amount
of character development in this film, the cast is just as solid as it was in
the first film. The returning cast members still have great camaraderie with
each other and Dylan O’Brien is able to take on a much meatier role this time
around now that Thomas is done being the audience’s ‘avatar’. The newcomers to
the cast are solid as well, including Giancarlo Esposito and Rosa Salazar as a
pair of survivors who become key allies of Thomas’ group and Barry Pepper and
Lili Taylor as members of ‘The Right Arm’ resistance. As for the villains, Ava
Paige and Janson, while they’re not really in the film enough to be truly
intimidating antagonists, both Patricia Clarkson and Aiden Gillen do their jobs
in making their characters fittingly despicable.
Despite all that I’ve said in this review, I want to make it
clear that I did still like ‘The Scorch Trials’. Ultimately though, while I’ve
seen quite a few people say that this is an improvement over the first film, I’m
on the opposite side of that argument as I feel that the first ‘Maze Runner’ is
the better film. Both films do benefit from confident direction from Wes Ball,
a solid amount of action, and a strong cast. But whereas the first film had a
much more compelling plot, ‘The Scorch Trials’ suffers from weaker plotting and
character development. Seriously this film is at least 10 minutes longer than
the first film and yet has a much leaner story. How is that even possible? So I
guess you can say that while the first film was a pleasant surprise for me
given the fact that I hadn’t read the books going in, this film was a bit more disappointing
now that I’m actually invested in this series. But again, I still found this
film to be entertaining for what it is. Sure this series still isn’t as good as
‘Harry Potter’ or ‘The Hunger Games’ but it’s definitely one of the better film
franchises of its genre. Though with that said, if you’re not a fan of these
young adult book-to-film adaptations, you’re not going to get a lot out of this
film. But if you did like the first ‘Maze Runner’, then you’ll probably like this
film too. And despite the bigger issues that I had with this film, I’m still
genuinely interested in seeing how this story is going to end, which we’ll get
in 2017 with ‘The Death Cure’. Thankfully, unlike a lot of other franchises of
this genre, it won’t be split into two films.
Rating: 3.5/5
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