Lost in the Maze of Movies – Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Review

<p>Directed by&colon; Wes Ball<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Starring&colon; Dylan O&&num;8217&semi;Brien&comma; Kaya Scoderio and Thomas Brodie-Sangster<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Genre&colon; Action&comma; Sci-Fi&comma; Thriller<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Strapline &&num;8220&semi;The Maze was just the beginning&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wsite-content-title">In a Nutshell&colon;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">After having escaped the Maze&comma; the Gladers now face a new set of challenges on the open roads of a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles&period;<&sol;span><&sol;div>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wsite-content-title">My Thoughts&colon;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph">&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">Released one year after its first chapter <em>The Maze Runner&comma; <&sol;em>this second installment&comma; <em>The<&sol;em> <em>Scorch Trials<&sol;em> sees the continuing perilous adventures of Thomas&comma; Teresa&comma; Newt and their fellow Gladers&period; The first movie proved to be one of the biggest sleeper hits of last year&comma; earning ten times its modest &dollar;34 million dollar budget&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">I enjoyed <em>The Maze Runner <&sol;em>as<em> <&sol;em>a solid chunk of teen sci-fi adventure&period; This second installment picks up directly from the gladers rescue out of the maze at the end of the first movie&period; Having been rescued by the World Catastrophe Killzone Department &lpar;WKCD&rpar; &lpar;Pronounced &&num;8220&semi;Wicked&&num;8221&semi;&rpar; Thomas and company begin to realize that they may have been saved from the frying pan but will probably be thrown into the fire&period; Thomas uncovers an increasingly oppressive regime at the hands of newcomer Janson &lpar;Aiden Gillen&rpar; WKCD&&num;8217&semi;s mysterious man on point and thinks &&num;8220&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m getting out of here&excl;&&num;8221&semi; Thomas and co&period; therefore decide to escape and take their chances in the Scorch&comma; a barren wasteland of desert&comma; mountains and ruined cities populated by Cranks&comma; humans at various stages of the Flare infection&period; <&sol;span><br &sol;>&NewLine;<span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;"><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">Unfortunately&comma; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t enjoy <em>Scorch Trials&period;<&sol;em> <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">Where it differs from <em>The Hunger Games<&sol;em> is that while <em>Catching Fire<&sol;em> capitalized on what made the first installment work and brought us more of the same and more&comma; <em>Scorch Trials <&sol;em>veers from its original text and decides to go in a completely different direction to it&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;span> predecessor <span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">and is the worse for it&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">With a returning director and central cast one would have hoped for growth in both style of direction and character development&comma; however none is present&period; Having picked up directly from the first movie I even got a sense of it being one long film chopped into two as there is literally nothing new with any of the characters &lpar;O&&num;8217&semi;Brien included&rpar; this time round&period; As a result&comma; I found myself switching off&comma; in the first movie it was a simple cast for a simple task&comma; but this movie expands on its scope and themes&comma; but forgot to tell the cast&excl;<&sol;span><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph">&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;91877" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-91877" style&equals;"width&colon; 1100px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04134152&sol;maze-runner-scorch-trials-pic3&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-91877" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04134152&sol;maze-runner-scorch-trials-pic3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Maze Runner&colon; Scorch Trials&sol; 20th Century Fox" width&equals;"1100" height&equals;"618" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-91877" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Maze Runner&colon; Scorch Trials&sol; 20th Century Fox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">Also&comma; let&&num;8217&semi;s face&comma; the first chapter it was just the Gladers versus the maze which didn&&num;8217&semi;t provide too much opportunity for some older heavy weight actors to help things along&period; This middle chapter does <em>and was<&sol;em> this franchises opportunity to stamp it&&num;8217&semi;s mark with several key new characters being introduced&period; I honestly think this franchise should have taken a leaf out of the other Dystopian teen novels&period; It would have hugely benefited from the likes of <em>The Hunger Games<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">Donald Sutherland<em> <&sol;em>or<em> Divergent<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s Kate Winslet or Naomi Watts<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; large&semi;">&period; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">What makes it worse is how they build up the introduction of some of these new characters in this new movie leaving you to think <em>&&num;8220&semi;Who are they going to reveal&quest;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;em> only to be ultimately let down on their choices&period; &lpar;No offense to the actors they did pick&comma; of course&period;&rpar;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">The best thing <em>Scorch Trials<&sol;em> has going for it is the action and in this regard alone it does improve on its predecessor&comma; though the 3D here isn&&num;8217&semi;t needed&period; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">Genuinely scary tension-filled encounters with the zombie like Kranks head the taut filled set pieces&comma; although some sequences in daylight set against the vast CGI ruined cities did feel a little too similar to a video game&period; What disappointed me as well was despite heavy marketing of an impressive post-apocalyptic setting&comma; how woefully underused the wasteland itself was used&period; Save a few genre-standard establishing shots&comma; this landscape doesn&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">t play a huge part&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph">&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;91878" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-91878" style&equals;"width&colon; 1100px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04134137&sol;maze-runner-scorch-trials-pic4&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-91878" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04134137&sol;maze-runner-scorch-trials-pic4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Maze Runner&colon; Scorch Trials&sol; 20th Century Fox" width&equals;"1100" height&equals;"458" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-91878" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Maze Runner&colon; Scorch Trials&sol; 20th Century Fox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">The main issue with this movie is the pacing&period; The first act is the best but the second act is very poor due to the badly written script coming to the fore and a feeling that you were just jumping from one set piece to another&period; Coupled with zero character development left me bored and detached to what was unfolding&period; The last act goes someway to redeem the movie albeit with a very heavy nod to <em>Empire Strikes Back <&sol;em>in the feel to its ending&period; This movie does attempt to answer the big questions posed in the first movie but as Thomas is still in the dark on what is really going on&comma; ultimately so are we&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">After a promising start with last year&&num;8217&semi;s first installment&comma;<em> Scorch Trials<&sol;em> feels as barren as the wasteland its stuck in and proves that it is more lukewarm than scorching hot&period; Although featuring some cool action set pieces this teen dystopian adventure has ground to a halt with a lackluster badly written second chapter&period; The young cast do what they can but flatline due to zero character development&period; They would&&num;8217&semi;ve also benefited from some well known <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">experienced <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;">hands&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re fan of <em>The Maze Runner <&sol;em>there is enough here for you to enjoy&comma; but if you skipped the first one&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s nothing new here for you&period; <&sol;span><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph"><&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"paragraph">&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; medium&semi;"><em>Maze Runner&colon; The Scorch Trials<&sol;em> is on general release in the UK from today&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;