Image courtesy of wall.alphacoders.com
The focus of the next two posts will be on the sequels to the first movie I ever reviewed, The Maze Runner. In this one, I will be covering The Scorch Trials.
Having escaped the Maze, Thomas and his fellow surviving Gladers now find themselves in a facility that will protect them from the deadly Flare virus. It turns out this is a test facility to see who is immune to it, as it was previously thought incurable. Thomas thinks the staff is up to something, and that they may in fact have been captured by WCKD (the World Catastrophe Killzone Department). However, after Thomas manages to gather his friends and escape, they have to deal with something worse: Cranks (the Infected) and the environment they inhabit. What was once our world is now a desolate wasteland known as "The Scorch."
What Worked: The acting is still really good. The returning cast continue to have great chemistry with each other. I especially enjoyed most of the new characters. The ones that stood out to me were Jorge, Vince, and Janson. They are played respectively by Giancarlo Esposito, Barry Pepper, and Aidan Gillen. Jorge gets in on the action quite a bit here, and he's awesome whenever he does. Vince, although he doesn't come in until basically the entire third act, is an interesting character because he has leader-like qualities to him, similar to Jorge, but even more so. It's also nice to see Barry Pepper in a good sci-fi movie.
As for Janson, this is one of those times where if you see Aidan Gillen in something, you know he's bad news the moment he first shows up. He's very good here, and he is a better villain than he was in 12 Rounds where he went up against a certain wrestler who isn't The Rock or Dave Bautista*.
The action works here because it's amped up from the first movie, which also helps the story of the bigger picture progress. In the first one, there was action, but it was more about the group trying to find a way out of the Maze; the action provided the conflict throughout the movie. Here, it's in a larger setting, so you don't know what could be out there.
In addition to helping with story progression, the action sets up several moments of tension. A good example is one scene (part of which was in the trailer) where Thomas and another character are being chased by a Crank in a building, and one of them lands on glass, which slowly starts cracking.
For those who have read my review of the first one, my main issue with it was that some of the characters' decisions might not make sense. Thankfully, the amount of questionable decisions has been dialed back this time.
What Didn't Work: Something that seems to have also been dialed back is a fair amount of the effects. In the first one, they looked practical. Here, some of them look like they were done with CGI. My problem with that is not the fact that they might have used it, but rather that at times, it looks obvious if they did.
The amount of questionable decisions may have been reduced, but this one has something similar: predictable actions and lines. If you've seen any post-apocalyptic zombie movie (which you could argue this is to an extent) or any sci-fi action movie, chances are you know what I'm referring to.
While there is tension, and the action is still good, for some reason it's accompanied with a little bit of shaky cam. It didn't bother me too much, but it's there. I understand that there had to be a way to convey a sense of urgency with the group trying to find someone to protect them, but there had to have been a better way of doing it.
My main issue this time is with some pacing in the middle. It's after the building scene I mentioned. The problem is that it had been going at such a consistently fast pace prior to that, and then that scene happens, and it takes some time to get going again. It just felt very jarring.
Overall: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials still has a lot of good parts, even with its problems. It does answer some questions posed in the first movie while building towards the answers for others. It also continues to build upon the world established there. It's still fun to watch because it's interesting to see how the story picks up and progresses. Then when all is said and done for the events of this movie, you want to see how it will be for the events of the franchise.
*I know the joke is coming.