Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) - Good CGI and young actors in strained dose of apocalypse

♥♥

 

An apocalyptic, sandy metropolis and a group of youngsters walking through it, on this poster for Wes Ball's Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

 

Thomas and a group of other boys and one girl, who have eloped the maze, smell something fishy on their new prison guards from WCKD, and they break free to discover a post-apocalyptic world!

 

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is written by T.S. Nowlin (Phoenix Forgotten (2017)), based on the same-titled 2010 novel by James Dashner (The Eye of Minds (2013)), and directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner (2014)). It is the 2nd film in the Maze Runner trilogy.

The young actors look remarkable unaged, despite the film claiming that 4 years has passed since the first film, (only released a year before.) The tone is the same in the teenage-fantasy horror/action/adventure, which is probably hard to connect with for most people who aren't teenagers. Fun or real thrills or surprises are lacking here; and the simple setup of an evil science class of people seems like near-nonsense.

New cast-member Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Godless (2017, miniseries)), returning star Dylan O'Brien (The First Time (2012)) and Co. meet scary zombies in the neat, CGI-driven world, and a depraved nightclub owner who stays open during the day. Whether everything here serves a deeper political meaning is hard to deduce. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is technically well-made but not really a good film.

 

Related post:

 

Wes Ball: The Maze Runner (2014) - O'Brien breakout, well-made YA nonsense

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 61 mil. $

Box office: 312.2 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 5.11 times its cost)

[Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials premiered 1 September (Sao Paolo, Brazil) and runs 131 minutes. Development of the film began before the release of the first Maze Runner in 2014. Shooting lasted 94 days and took place in New Mexico, including Albuquerque, from October 2014 - January 2015. The film opened #1 to a 30.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 2 more weekends in the top 5 (#3-#5) and grossed 81.6 mil. $ (26.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 29.5 mil. $ (9.4 %) and France with 25.3 mil. $ (8.1 %). A concluding, again successful film was made and released as Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) by Ball, with O'Brien back. This was Ball's next film. O'Brien returned first in Deepwater Horizon (2016). Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is rotten at 46 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials?