The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a sequel to the well received Maze Runner form last year and picks up where the last one left off (so if you haven't seen the first one please your not going to want to read the next sentence because it spoils the movie...just go check out the first movie its really good). Thomas and crew are now out of the maze and into the safe hands in a facility at an unknown location. However through a series of circumstances the gang leaves the facility and are forced to brave the scorch, a post apocalyptic wasteland dried by the heat of the and inhabited by brain dead zombies (oh I mean walkers)...(oh I mean cranks). Without any infactrutre and experience Thomas is pushed even further to his limits to survive the trials of the now "real" world he fought so hard to reach.
The Scorch Trials does everything a proper sequel should, it raises the stakes, expands the lore and even adds plot points that reflect back to the original movie; quite ironically Scorch trials also forgets why these things are important. In raising the stakes it makes them less personal, trading in the desires and hopes of a group of lost boys for the sake of a world we just don't care about. Scorch Trials expands more on the lore but at the end of the day there is really nothing more learned then what was resolved at the end of the last movie. Finally the points that reflect back to the original give weight to the story in place but really clarify why I think the second movie is less superior. The first movie's greatest tool was mystery and suspense. We didn't know why all those boys were trapped in the maze, well now we do (well sort of). We didn't know what Thomas did to get into the maze, well now we do...at the end of the day its nice to know these thing but in the original it didn't matter what the maze was about the only concern was escaping it. As for Thomas he was an interesting character before we knew his "origin story" because his actions showed that he was a confident strong personality and I was more interesting to speculate how and organization like W.C.E.D, may dislike that.
But thats enough of the rambling, this movie does bring some great action to table taking advantage of that increase in budget from the first movies success. If your a fan of zombies (ugggh Cranks sorry cough cough) then you'll enjoy the several great zombie horror moments that this movie has to offer (although I can swear some of those scenes are ripped straight from the Last of Us...not a bad thing though). Also its great to see a YA adaption where the youth stars can actually pose a treat to the bad guys (Im looking at you divergent). Thomas and the others from his maze work like a unit and more then once you'll see them collaborating together without words on the fly, I have to give props to director Wes Ball (even though this is only his second movie credited!).
However where there is good there is the bad. First and foremost If you haven't seen the first movie I recommend avoiding this one considering there is no lead into Scorch Trails and the first 10minutes fly by faster then the Green Goblin in Amazing Spiderman 2. Also arround the second half of this movie the pace drops like a rock and although their is still plenty of action it starts to feel more like a chore rater then a pleasure. Another huge con I had with the movie is the run time. This movie is way longer then it should be and by the time it feels like its going to end it goes on for another 30 minutes. If several scenes were just removes or shortened I think this problem would go away and fix a lot wrong but thats why I gotz a blog.
Overall I enjoyed Maze Runner The Scorch Trials but I still cant recommend it. Its not a bad movie but it is a bad sequel and sometimes in hollywood thats worse. Go if your a fan of the franchise but if you never had the fortune of seeing The Maze Runner (2014) then your better off skipping this one and saving yourself the headache.
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