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Director: Wes Ball

Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aidan Gillen, Patricia Clarkson, Katherine McNamara, Ki Hong Lee, Giancarlo Esposito, Barry Pepper, Rosa Salazar, Lili Taylor, Jacob Lofland, Tatanka Means, Dexter Darden, Alexander Flores

Rating: B-

As expected, the sequel to last year’s young adult sci-fi adventure The Maze Runner is about to hit theaters this fall.  The second installment, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, picks up right where the first film ended and does not waste any time going full throttle taking audiences from one adventure to the next. But like the first movie this chapter is also filled with a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of things that just don’t make any sense.  The films are based on the novels by James Dashner, and since I have not read any of the books I don’t know if the confusing storylines are actually meant to be.

Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his motley crew have been rescued from the Glade where they were running through a booby trapped maze run by WCKD, a corrupt organization using the kids as subjects in a weird scientific experiment that could have killed them.  The young group is taken to safe haven headed up by Janson (Aidan Gillen), a foreign-accented and rather sinister guy who is in charge of many young people that have been saved from other mazes. In the safe haven the youngsters are given shelter and food and are ultimately promised to be transported in small groups to a place equal to paradise where no more harm will come to them.  Thomas’ suspicion radar is on full alert and he knows something is not right in the compound where he and his friends are being held. Determined to find out what is really going on, Thomas teams up with Aris (Jacob Lofland), a boy who has been a resident at the Inn longer than anyone and may have the inside scoop on what is actually happening.

Together Thomas and Jacob find out that the groups being taken each day are actually being hooked up to medical machines (a very similar theme already done in the classic sci-fi thriller The Martix) so that their bodily fluids can be drained and used for a curing a virus that wiped out earth’s population. It turns out that all the kids in the various mazes are immune to the Flair virus which turns people into zombie like creatures called Cranks.  Thomas rounds up his crew made up of Kaya (Teresa Scodelario), Minho (Ki Hong Lee), Frypan (Dexter Darden), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), and Winston (Alexander Flores) and together they make a daring escape from the compound. Once out of the false sanctuary, the Gladers are left to face the dangers of the outside world in what is known as The Scorch. The Scorch is the desert terrane of what is left of the earth after some type of apocalypse destroyed everything. Their goal is to get beyond the mountains to join a resistance group that is fighting against WCKD.

Their journey takes them through dark tunnels in old cities where they encounter some nasty looking Cranks. They come across Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito), a sort of war lord presiding over a city of people not infected by the virus. Thomas hopes Jorge, who lives with his surrogate daughter Brenda (Rosa Salazar), will aid him in getting to the resistance fighters, but Jorge’s agenda is to sell Thomas and his friends back to WCKD to turn a quick profit.  Meanwhile WCKD is still on the move and determined to recapture the escapees.

Since the characters in the sequel are not confined to the Glade, there are more people, danger, and action to encounter making this movie feel much bigger than the first one.  Instead of running through a maze to escape danger, the cast is running through abandoned city tunnels, shifting sky scrapers, and open desert to avoid being killed. There is a one scene in a dark tunnel where Thomas and Brenda are being chased by a more advanced group of Cranks that proves for some heart pounding action.  Being chased through shifting buildings adds some cool CGI visual interest in the film. There is also plenty of tension in the outdoor action scenes which will keep moviegoers in their seats waiting to see what happens next.

For the most part, the actors all play their parts well and the new cast members also add spark to the second half of the story.  There is an introduction of a love triangle when Rose’s character is introduced and this is one of the weak points of the film. The development of Rose and Teresa as romantic interests for Thomas doesn’t seem to fit.

The Scorch Trials is just a big set up for the third installment with a lot of unanswered questions.  We still don’t know the purpose of the maze trials. There is no real plot advancement, just the characters racing from one place to another to escape either death or being captured. It makes no sense how the former residences of the Glade survive desert conditions with no food or water, and it looks pretty silly when what little water they have is found in one of the city tunnels and just happens to be safe for drinking. How did the city that Jorge oversees survive the apocalypse? We are never told how the virus spread or what caused the world’s destruction.  It is very confusing when different versions of Cranks start popping up and there is no explanation of why there is such variety among this nasty species. There are plenty of new facts randomly mentioned throughout the film that only succeed in raising more questions instead of tying the science fiction tale together. We just have to hope that eventually the third installment will reveal the answers to all the questions The Scorch Trials raises.

This installment has just enough character development and action to keep audiences interested and curious about what is going to happen next.  If they can just bear the maze of confusion that keeps reoccurring in The Maze Runner series, then hopefully the reward will be finally getting an explanation that will put the mysteries to rest so that the story will make complete sense.

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