Having been a fan of THE MAZE RUNNER, in large part because I was as intrigued by its many mysteries and less so by all the maze running, I was somewhat surprised and disappointed that the follow-up, THE SCORCH TRIALS is mostly just a whole lot of the kids from the maze fleeing from those at the ruling corporation WCKD (pronounced Wicked), and picking up new characters along the way. I don't know how many of you watched the short-lived NBC series "Revolution," but the only differences between that show and this film are the production values. Hell, even some of the actors from that series show up in the Scorch.
Picking up right where the last film left off, the surviving kids from the maze (now called the Gladers, whose memories have been conveniently erased) manage to escape the WCKD facility into the blasted-out remains of the world outside, only to be picked up by another group claiming to be rounding up kids from all over who were also in mazes, nursing them back to health, and sending them somewhere more habitable a dozen or so at a time. These new keepers are led by Janson (Aidan Gillen, Littlefinger from "Game of Thrones"), and the whole set up seems too good to be true, so it's a safe bet it probably is.
Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) is still the de facto leader of the Gladers and is also the most suspicious, and after a little bit of snooping he discovers that these new handlers aren't necessarily good for their health either. Gathering up his core group—including Kaya Scodelario as Teresa, Ki Hong Lee as Minho, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt and Dexter Darden as Frypan—they escape into the night, into the Scorch with several groups now on their heels. And the formula repeats itself—the Gladers find a place to hide and make into shelter, but a danger presents itself and they must run to the next place. Sometimes the danger is Janson's team, sometimes WCKD, sometimes these crazed, zombie-like creatures that are infected with a highly contagious disease known as The Flare.
At one location, the group meets a nasty bunch of scavengers led by Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito from "Breaking Bad") and his sidekick Brenda (Rosa Salazar from NIGHT OWLS); the kids get captured but are eventually released, form a new alliance with their two new friends and off they go. Later they meet with a group of resistance fighters, led by Mary (Lili Taylor) and Vince (Barry Pepper), who seem to know Thomas from a time before he lost his memory. This issue of who Thomas and the others were in the past becomes a bigger factor in THE SCORCH TRIALS, but it all seems a bit dry and obvious; it's certainly not something that can sustain a franchise—Part 3 comes out February 2017!
I happen to like these young actors; they're faces I'm not especially familiar with, so they don't bring any baggage or bad habits with them as they develop these characters. But sadly, that doesn't stop them or the story from being decidedly average. We've seen these ruined worlds and same-old chase scenes a hundred times before in science-fiction films, and without a big-ass maze filled with robotic bugs as your main feature, there's not much else to fall back on. Returning director Wes Ball (a special effects artist, whose only other feature is THE MAZE RUNNER) keeps things moving with the help of a slick adaption by T.S. Nowlin of James Dashner's novel.
Boiled down to its essentials, THE SCORCH TRIALS is little more than a lot of running interspersed with carefully timed reveals about people's pasts. Perhaps as the series draws to a close and more substantial reveals are made and dealt with, things will pick up in the third chapter. But this one is so run-of-the-mill in terms of action and plot, you can't help but feel substantially let down.
