Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Bit of background. I didn't much like the first Maze Runner film. I found it dull and uninspired, coming far too late to the pack of YA adaptations with a terminal lack of original ideas. I didn't review it, but if I had, it would have probably been a THREE/FOUR out of 10.

The second one's better. Though better is a relative term.

The Partially Educated Review

Mockingjay Part 12

In 50 Words or Less: Noticeably improved from the original, with some solid (but unoriginal) setpieces to ramp up the excitement that the first film lacked. The cast are solid, but the original characters are still dull, while some interesting new additions fall victim to under-development. The fatigue of dystopian YA also continues.

In Detail: Having escaped from the maze (thus raising the question why they bother mentioning the damn thing in the title), our prerequisite group of mopey young heroes take shelter with people fighting against the organisation that held them in the maze (WCKD, a name that's funny when they say it and hilarious when you hear what it stands for). It's not long though before the motives of their new allies are bought into question. Could it be that they aren't as noble as they first seemed? (Clue: they aren't)

The reason why Scorch Trials is better than it's predecessor is simple: there's a bit more going on. The first film's focus on character over action is flipped: a wise decision given that a character driven piece only holds interest if those characters aren't a group of surly teenagers. It's also not bothered about wrapping it's young audience in some sort of soft, protective material. I advise consideration if you're planning to take a pre-teen to this because your average 8 year-old will likely shit his/herself at some of the more, shall we say, intense moments. I can state that with confidence because I witnessed one 8 year-old (guessed age) stage some sort of meltdown, forcing a quick evacuation of the cinema by one pissed off looking parent.

The action sequences are what add a lot of the excitement...

...and they're really well-made, though they befit the franchise's lack of imagination. All of them are a mishmash of scenes that you've seen before. In particular, the likes of 28 Days Later (yep, those are the bits that push the 12A certificate to the max) and Jurassic Park 2 get the sort of tribute that borders on copyright infringement.

This bit, if you're wondering.

The film isn't shy about introducing new characters either. In fact, it's probably a little too eager to throw in as many as it can. Though this leads to underdevelopment, the mercy of it is that a lot of these new characters are played by adults, meaning a lot less puberty woes. That's not to entirely denigrate the young casts' competence as performers, as the franchise has always had fairly solid hands in this respect. It's just good to see someone who's not an eye-covering fringe away from the emo-kid stereotype that I thought dead in 2005.

Familiarity is also an issue. If someone came along and declared a 5-year ban on further YA adaptations upon completion of all current franchise, I wouldn't be too distraught. In fact, it's reached the point now where Mockingjay Part 2 is the only one that fills me with any interest. Though I actually consider the Divergent series a worse offender in paint by numbers cinema, The Maze Runner really only has a male protagonist and sensible character names to distance itself from the Hunger Games franchise. With Mockingjay Part 1 boring a proportion of it's audience last year (not me, I liked it), there are elements of this film that will royally drag for that same audience when they realise it's a near identical film, with zombies.

However, when I say The Scorch Trials is better than The Maze Runner, it's not by some small margin. It's a noticeable improvement that director Wes Ball deserves credit for, along with his merciful refusal to split the final book into two films. If that level of improvement occurs next time around, we'll probably have a pretty damn good finale to enjoy. IF that level of improvement occurs.

SIX out of 10