Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Robert Murphy

The idea of burning everything the first Maze Runner was to the ground and starting fresh in the desolate waste left behind was a rather pleasant thought to me. The first foray into this three part series felt like a rather stunted endeavor as the characters and the story never broke free from the box in which it revolved around. Now our "Gladers" have finally escaped from their tortured prison but they have also found themselves in a much more dire situation than before as more about the organization that held them hostage is revealed and more about the state that the world is now in comes to light.

The original Maze Runner suffered when it failed to give out any information about the world around it until the final twenty minutes where it crammed a large amount of backstory thoroughly down our throats. It was slightly beneficial as Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and the rest of his friends escaped into the world that was ravaged by an unknown virus which left the world in ruins and left the remaining survivors struggling to make it through their day to day lives. Besides the drastic shift in global climate, there's also the threat presented by the "Cranks" who are basically zombie like creatures who roam the land as well as the organization responsible for imprisoning Thomas and his friends, the World Catastrophe Killzone Division known as WCKD. What side the men who are currently protecting Thomas and his friends remains to be unseen but you just know he won't let that go until he finds out.

This proves to be the fatal flaw for the series once again, Thomas, who never becomes the main character with all that much of an appeal to him and the same goes for the other Gladers who follow in behind him. Thomas cannot sit still for more than five seconds before he's off to figure out why this group of soldiers are helping them and admittedly Jason (Aiden Gillen), the head of the facility they are staying in, lays it on pretty thick with his "this place in sinister" style interrogation. This leaves very little mystery as to who is behind this facility and so Thomas being paranoid is justified but his character is much less restrained this time around as he tries to throw himself in front of this leadership position he finds himself in. The performance is all over the place as he flips off the camera one minute and is a cold stoic type the next, giving speeches and urging his friends to follow him to the right path.

His friends fair even worse and really warrant surprisingly little screen time through the entire two hour production. In many ways I often forgot that Thomas had any friends because the story revolved so much around him and the fact that they all gave underwhelming performances. Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Minho (Ki Hong Lee) were perhaps the two that are allowed any screen time and it was frankly squandered as they had one or two lines and action scenes and then it was back to shuffling through the desert. This was all capped off by a meaningless death scene of a character who never even struck out in the first film, it felt like it was suppose to make me ignore how they have all done nothing for twenty minutes but it ultimately failed.

Scorch Trials begins to shine once we are introduced to our first Crank. These creatures appear much more demented and scarred compared to your average zombie makeup design and I was truly terrified during the first chase sequence. The second of these scenes being far superior as it features a running sequences up and around rubble and through destroyed buildings, it was the first real taste of any action but the adrenaline doesn't last too long. As the world gets more thoroughly explored though some of the new cast made a memorable impression especially Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito). He and his daughter Brenda (Rosa Salazar) are some of those unlucky enough to have to live out in the harsh world of Cranks and sand so they have a common interest with Thomas. Jorge especially shines with his off kilter style and his fondness for blowing things up.

The Scorch Trials is somehow more desolate than the first film despite opening viewers up to an immense wealth of information and a world that could have offered so much more. The story moves much too quickly in the first few moments as it rushes to get Thomas out the door and then proceeds to move along at a snails pace while he and his friends stumble around for answers with briefs spurts of excitement when the Cranks or a new character was introduced. If Thomas could possibly become a much more appealing character then perhaps I could see a future moving into the stories final chapter but with the weak finale presented by this latest film, I am not holding my breathe. 

Good:

- Finally some backstory and growth into the world

- The Cranks

- Side character like Jorge and Brenda

Bad:

- Thomas is still a bland main character whose performance was all over the place

- Little to no story present this time around

- Former main cast members fade into the background and were utterly useless

Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10

The Maze Runner

By: Robert Murphy

Heading off to the movies this past week I was excited to find out more about one movie in particular and that was The Maze Runner. This movie adaptation to best selling book by James Dashner plays out like something from The Lord of the Flies where a group of young boys have found themselves lost in the middle of a giant maze with no memory of what had happened to them before. Having not read the book I wasn't quite sure whether it hits the nail on the head but I can say that about most of the movie adaptations to come out over the past few years. Never the less I took a swing at the movie and here is what I have to say.

As I said the movie follows a group of young boys who are mostly in there late teen years and they have all found themselves trapped, surrounded on all four sides by walls and an ever changing maze beyond them. Things seem to be going along well for them all given the circumstances but this all changes when Thomas (Dylan O'Brian) appears with a shipment of supplies through an elevator coming out of the ground. This sounds stranger than it is but this is how all of these boys arrived here, month after month, a new boy and supplies would come from this strange underground elevator. Rather than question this though the boys are really more concerned with trying to survive day by day, that is until Thomas arrives. For some reason Thomas just can't let things be and as soon as he arrives everything changes and his curiosity may be a bit of a double edged sword.

I did find it a bit strange during the film at the reason behind why none of the boys have found their way out of the maze quite yet and when the big reveal is their lack of curiosity, I almost fell over in disbelief. The fact that none of the other boys before Thomas made any strives over the many years they'd been there to do some of the things he does just doesn't seem likely and of all things that there was only one boy smart enough to do them. The other side of the mystery as well though seemed to be a little bit off as boy after boy came from the unknown elevator. Later on it is revealed that humanity has done this in a last drastic attempt to save the world. It seems testing young children like this comes up often like this when the world is on the line but in The Maze Runner, I'm not quite sure what that reason would be even by the end of the movie. 

The giant maze itself is an interesting feature, it is ever changing in a unique pattern but after time the boys have figured most of it out. This again brings to me the question how no one else but Thomas couldn't put this obvious puzzle together. Supposedly fear is what defines these boys as the maze is home to some fearsome creatures that are referred to as Grievers. These horrifying creatures are a mix of an organism and machinery and posses a dangerous poison that has killed off a few of the boys before Thomas arrived. This also brings up the question of why whoever is doing this would be so extreme to these children and if they have the ability to make these freakish creatures then what is it all really for. 

In the end I think that The Maze Runner leaves a lot of questions that I would like to see answered. It's not that I have found fault with the ideas that are presented but obviously there is plenty more story yet to be told by the end of the film. The whole thing was honestly intriguing enough for me to want to see the next part of the series and hopefully the final third movie to come after but I just wish there were far more going on right now. Every one of the boys though are spot on actors and I deeply enjoyed their performances, Will Poulter (Meet the Millers) as Gally and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones) as Newt being among my favorites. 

Good:

- Intriguing story that got me wrapped up in the who, what and why of it all

- Some great performances from all the boys, well known and not so well known to myself

- I'm ready for the next part already

Bad:

- A little bit more going on in this first part would have been nice

- Not really certain that if humanity can make a giant maze and robotic creatures that they need to be doing this sort of thing to kids

- The fact that years have gone by and only one kid was smart enough to figure out these puzzles seemed unlikely to me

Scully Rating: 6.0 out of 10