Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a bloated paradox. Much of its 131 minutes concern storylines that aren’t fully explained (this is the second part of a trilogy based on James Dashner’s wildly popular young adult novels), the characters act illogically, the action is bland and the ending is labored. And yet it engages you enough to realize that it’s a bold PG-13 adaptation of those popular novels that isn’t afraid to be morbid and grim.

You may not like this movie, but at least it has guts.

The film picks up where The Maze Runner (2014) left off, which is good if you enjoyed The Maze Runner and meaningless if you didn’t. When last seen, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), Minho (Ki Hong Lee), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and the other survivors of the “Glade” were on a helicopter headed toward what they believed was safety. They end up in a facility run by Janson, whom Game of Thrones fans will immediately recognize because he’s played by icily creepy Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger).

Little do the teenagers know Janson is harvesting kids in the interest of finding a cure for the “Flare,” a deadly virus that turns people into Cranks (zombies).

Thomas and friends escape, starting a series of events that involves them running from various bad guys for the rest of the film. Eventually they find themselves in the “Scorch,” a desert-like terrain that offers little respite from the elements.

They have help: Aris (Jacob Lofland) assists them in leaving Janson’s facility, and Brenda (Rosa Salazar) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) lead the group into the mountains toward Right Arm, a resistance movement.

All the while danger lurks from the sun, Cranks, Wicked (the group conducting the experiments searching for the cure), and most surprisingly, from within their own ranks.

The film was directed by Wes Ball and written by T.S. Nowlin, both of whom also served the same function on The Maze Runner, so one would think the two films would share a sense of continuity. But aside from the characters, the two movies could not be more different, which is not good for the sequel when the original is clearly better. Ball is a veteran of graphic arts in films, lending his sharp attention to visuals in short documentaries such as A Hero’s Journey: The Making of Beowulf and Star Trek: Planets. His eye for visual details shows here.

Specifically, the tone and content of Scorch Trials is dire, and the life-or-death situations in which the teens are placed often come with great moral and ethical complications. Whereas the first film was Lord of the Flies-style survival, here the stakes are the continuation of mankind.

The story is so dark that some scenes feel straight out of a horror movie: Cranks attack with relentless speed, characters are drugged and taken advantage of, and scientific experiments on living humans all make this a squirmy movie to sit through, but in this case that’s a good thing because it feels atypical.

It’s an odd dynamic, but Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials simultaneously disappoints and intrigues. Knowing it’s the second part of a trilogy, the final evaluation can reasonably boil down to this: Does it leave me eager to see part three?

The answer is no, it feels like all the questions could’ve been answered with clearer and more concise storytelling here.

And leaving us thinking part three is superfluous rather than necessary is not good.

MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS (2) Directed by Wes Ball • Starring Dylan O’ Brien, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Aiden Gillen • Rated PG-13 • 131 min. • At Maya Cinemas, Century Cinemas Del Monte, Northridge Cinemas.