Success Or Failure: The Maze Runner

A sequel failing to live up to the expectations of its predecessor is pretty commonplace in Hollywood, but when that movie is based on a bestselling book trilogy, the failure is more profound. That’s the case with Scorch Trials, the sequel to The Maze Runner and based on the trilogy of young adult novels by James Dashner. Scorch Trials isn’t horrible, but it isn’t really good either and many book fans felt that it was the best title in the trilogy, increasing their disappointment. Movie fans will be let down because the cinematic version also falls short of its predecessor.

Scorch Trials picks up where The Maze Runner ends, with Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and the other survivors who escaped the Glade whisked off in helicopters to a refuge. There they discover they were but one of several mazes, with a handful of survivors managing to escape each (given the correct prodding

by the manipulative forces at WCKD-World Catastrophe Kill Department). The stronghold Thomas and friends find themselves in is a mere way station, as the teenage refugees are gradually taken to a new home, safe from WCKD.

Thomas’ constant doubts (get it? Doubting Thomas) are soon confirmed though when he discovers that this new haven is just another arm of WCKD and the promised safety is actually a lab where the bodies of maze survivors are harvested for a cure to the Flare virus that’s destroying what’s left of humanity on an environmentally devastated Earth. They escape into the enormous wasteland that the planet has become, navigating fearsome storms, hordes of hungry, Flare infected zombies and human marauders.

Like Maze Runner, Trials seriously invests in production values and world building. While it doesn’t offer additional details outlining what happened to the world (complete ecological failure followed by the spread of a zombie making virus), it doesn’t spare anything describing the resulting landscape. Ruined cities, crumbling skyscrapers collapsing into one another and desperate bands of survivors scraping an existence out of the desolation make it look like an authentic Biblical Apocalypse. The scenery and cinematography is easily this movie’s strength.

The plot initially feels rushed, as Trials forgoes a slow storytelling build up (which was used reasonably well in The Maze Runner) and the characters are running for their lives just a few minutes in.

The entire first act of the movie seems to be about as long as the opening credits, but the second act more then makes up for it as the film’s pace gets bogged down in a trek through the desert that drags on. Thomas’ journey wouldn’t have been so tiresome if it had been used more effectively as a character development tool, but the movie only concerns itself with Thomas.

The other characters are mere set pieces there to follow orders and occasionally provide fodder (not on the same scale as red shirts in Star Trek but it’s the same idea). There are a few times that Thomas’ followers question his leadership, but those moments are token at best and there’s no actual exploration of that dynamic. And while Thomas is filled with doubt about what he’s told by authority figures, his doubt never extends to himself, a missed story opportunity given that the theme of self-discovery is central to these

movies.

Aiden Gillen brings his signature Game of Thrones sliminess to his role as the deceptive security chief Jansen and Trials recruits an impressive list of veteran performers to fill the adult roles (especially Patricia Clarkson as Dr. Ava Paige, who you come to truly despise by the end of the movie), but they’re just a supporting cast for the young actors who, other then O’Brien, are given no real purpose or room to breathe.

There are times when director Wes Ball seems unconcerned with telling a story, treating it like a reluctant chore, and others when he seems determined to tell one at the expense of everything else. Scorch Trials isn’t a bad movie, but really isn’t a memorable one either and it depends on you having seen The Maze Runner or at least read the book (if you haven’t you’ll be completely lost). It probably would have been better off getting the mini-series or Netflix treatment where it could stretch its legs.