Review: ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’

“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” is the continuing adventures of Thomas and his friends in yet another dystopian future, this time set in a world that appears to have been burned to death by the sun (or what we call, Arizona). Did you want to see another film in which a ruined future is run by an evil entity which can only be brought down by the chosen one and his/her teenage friends, but only after several films which have no endings and instead only cliffhangers to questions no one cares about? Because boy oh boy do we have yet another one of these movies for you.

Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) wakes up to find himself in the hands of an organization hiding away deep in some giant warehouse or mountain or something, and he is reunited with his friends in a facility housing dozens of other teenagers. The one thing all these kids have in common is their immunity to some disease, as well as their dopiness when they blindly believe that this company simply wants to send them to some far away island where they can live out their days in paradise. Doesn’t that sound a lot like when your parents told you that your family pet was sent to a sweet farm upstate? Only Thomas and one other kid seem to question the motives of this company, and they set out to, yes you guessed it, save the day for everyone by exposing the company.

Did I mention this seemingly benevolent company is named WCKD, which is pronounced “wicked” and which stands for World Catastrophe Killzone Department? They even have the word KILLZONE in their name, and these kids think they aren’t some evil corporation? Who the hell names their company that? Only overtly evil people in James Bond movies, that’s who.

But no, Thomas has to convince his friends that this company called WICKED (!) is possibly up to no good. Pretty stupid. They deserved to go to that sweet farm upstate.

And spoilers to no one (especially since it is in ALL the marketing), Thomas gets his small group of friends out of there and they head out into the wilderness, which is desert as far as they can see, populated by deformed people (who mostly appear to be made out of computer graphics) who chase down anyone living like a zombie, but not like a real zombie, more like the people infected with the “rage virus” in “28 Days Later” had sex with the CG vampires in “I Am Legend” and had these ugly, stupid babies that lived in the desert. And while Thomas et. al. try to stay away from these things, they also are on the look out for some underground resistance called The Right Arm because it wouldn’t be a young adult novel adaptation if there wasn’t some sort of resistance effort. Just ask Katniss.

Last year when I saw the first “Maze Runner: The Maze Runner,” I had this to say:

The movie is okay enough but nothing to really get excited about. And if there is never a sequel, it wouldn’t bother me any, because I don’t need the further adventures of Thomas and friends, I’m done with this world. One visit was enough.

And now that the further adventures are here, I can say that I was right. We didn’t need this movie because what made the first one unique and interesting is entirely absent from this film, and instead we have a run of the mill, been there, done that type of movie. We’ve seen this already, just because one mashes up different flavors from different movies doesn’t always mean it is going to come out as something fresh. Whereas the first movie had mystery and suspense mixed in with the dumbness, this second one is just the dumbness.

For example, it was nice to see that the habit of the kids in the first movie to give everything in their day to day lives an ominous name (The Glade, The Runners, The Slicers, The Changing, and so on) continue on with the adults in this movie, as they reference The Scorch and The Flare and of course the aforementioned The Right Arm. Also, this movie is called the scorch trials but it is unclear what this even means. Are they referring to medical trials performed inside WCKD? Because that doesn’t really happen in The Scorch. Or are the trials referring to the trials and tribulations of a group of teenagers trekking through The Scorch? Is it that kind of Scorch Trial? And did they even pass these trials? Will someone be on trial in the third movie? And will that also take place in The Scorch? It just doesn’t make damn sense.

Also, see that movie poster up there? With the building bridging the gap of a canyon for the kids to cross on? Never happens in the movie. Don’t you love when marketing departments sell you something that doesn’t even happen? Shows how much faith they possessed in what they did have.

“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” just is not very compelling and instead feels so rote and bland. Well there’s only more of these things to go, and it will likely be out by this time next year. Maybe it will go in a direction that will be surprising and cool and interesting? And maybe I should learn to stop expecting things like this? After all, my gut reaction from one year ago was right, so I might as well trust myself now. Surely the third film will be shit. And surely, I will be there to see this thing through to the bitter end.

Or will I?