Review of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) by Jesse O — 24 Jan 2016

I will say that this is, admittedly, a step down from the first film and I think the consensus here pretty much hits the nail on the head as to why. What made the first movie so good was that there was a good deal of intrigue and mystery as to what the maze was and why these kids were forced to be in there.

Understandably, however, when you take the characters out of that element then what was special, or different, about the franchise is gone entirely. So I will say that the fact that there's no real mystery about WICKED, you find out what they're after fairly quickly, is one of the reasons this film is a bit of a step down from the first one.

The story is also not that great, I think they do just about enough to avoid falling into all the trappings that all these film adaptations based on young adult novels often fall in. Much like the first movie, this movie, in parts, is a straight up horror movie and that's something that you don't see often in these types of films.

It might be different from all the adaptations of YA novels, but it's still fairly standard post-apocalyptic fare. With that said, however, the movie does introduce some new elements and character, along with enough story twists to still keep me invested into where this franchise is going, particularly with how everything ended up.

But I must say, though, that the entire WICKED organization feels like a toned down version of the government from The Hunger Games and Thomas a much less effective Katniss Everdeen. That, literally, just came to my mind right now.

Perhaps that wasn't even the intention, but that's how it comes across. Hunger Games might not have been the first movie to play with this concept, but in the mind of audiences then that's gonna be first.

This is far more of an action-heavy sequel, so, as mentioned, the movie sort of loses some of the story elements that were so strong in the first one. I thought that was a bit of a mistake, because if the story elements had been better developed and you had the action, then this could've been something really special.

It was not to be, sadly, but the movie does maintain a quick enough pace that you don't really think about what it's lacking until after the movie is over. The movie also has some good addition in characters like Jorge, Brenda and some people in the resistance movement, additions that give the film a little more mileage heading into, what I'm assuming is, the final film in the franchise.

Here's the thing, as much as I thought the movie was flawed, if I'm invested in the world and the characters then that's all that matters, at least with films like this. You can have an average movie and if I'm intrigued or invested, then I'll want to see where the story is heading.

Though I will say that I thought that, at least as an overall film, this was fairly solid. It might not have had as many strong elements as the first film, at least it's something different than the first one, both its blessing and its curse, but it's still a fairly solid movie.

I can't give it a wholehearted recommendation, this is a solid rental at best.