Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is the continuation of 2014 Maze Runner. Scorch Trials is about a boy named Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) who leads a group of children known as the Gladers through a desolate landscape filled with terrifying obstacles.
I truly enjoyed the prequel to this film and was looking forward to seeing the next in the Maze Runner series. Maze Runner was fun, entertaining and one of the better young adult novel adaptations audiences have seen in the past 10 years. However, there are so many things about the Scorch Trials that made me legitimately angry. The first observation is that 90% of the group's problems are because Thomas is a failure and an all-around annoyance. He acts before making a plan or even thoroughly explaining things to the group. He leads the group into dangerous situations and for some reason, no one questions his decision or leadership. Also, Thomas seems to always get at least one member of the group killed or captured.
If T.S. Nowlin was interested in writing a good movie. He would have included some form of redemption for Thomas. I understand that this is about a bunch of teenagers but because the movie centers on a struggling group of young adults, Nowlin should have added some type of moral lesson that Thomas learned while navigating the second set of trials. To have such an nonredeemable lead in a movie that attempts to present the main character as an intelligent, adventurous, and often times a foolhardy individual is a failure in the script creation. If the writer wants the lead to be likable, you can’t tell the audience that he is, you have to show us why he is amiable.
This movie should actually be called reasons Thomas sucks part 2…with zombies. There is one point in the movie that did not make sense to me. At one point Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) was separated from the group but managed to rejoin the Gladers at a later point. Why did they take Teresa with them when she had been separated from the group for an extended period of time? She seemed different once she came back to the group. They should have either abandoned her or, at least, watch her closely and observe for any indications that she had been corrupted, even if she hadn’t been. In the world presented to them, trusting unconditionally can lead to death.
Another issue I had was the name of Zombies. I know that now that “The Walking Dead” made it popular to come up with unconventional names for zombies popular, but this is ridiculous. Why name zombie’s cranks? It’s such an adorable name that describes something horrible. I also didn’t care about the new character additions since I didn’t have enough time to care for them.
One good thing I can say is that the action sequences were great and the cinematography was done well. Even though the green screen is prevalent the shots were still gorgeous and framed well.
Overall, this movie was lacking in plot, character development and motivation but at least the scenes looked pretty.
