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Title: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Dylan O'Brien | ... | Thomas | |
| Ki Hong Lee | ... | Minho | |
| Kaya Scodelario | ... | Teresa | |
| Thomas Brodie-Sangster | ... | Newt | |
| Dexter Darden | ... | Frypan | |
| Alexander Flores | ... | Winston | |
| Jacob Lofland | ... | Aris | |
| Rosa Salazar | ... | Brenda | |
| Giancarlo Esposito | ... | Jorge | |
| Patricia Clarkson | ... | Ava Paige | |
| Aidan Gillen | ... | Janson | |
 |
Terry Dale Parks | ... | Carl (Masked Man) |
| Kathryn Smith-McGlynn | ... | Dr. Crawford | |
| Lili Taylor | ... | Mary | |
| Barry Pepper | ... | Vince | |
The second chapter of the epic "Maze Runner" saga. Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD's vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all. Written by 20th Century Fox
Last year's 'The Maze Runner' was en route to a non-conformist course off the young adult/post-apocalyptic sub-genre, delivering less familiar but appealing deviations from the more recognizable standards of the category. This year, 'The Scorch Trials', its sequel, keeps some of the original beats of its predecessor, but it eventually falls into the scope of the overly familiar trope that the first film has defiantly avoided, which is a bit disappointing, considering the riveting buildup they've pulled off with the first film.
Much of this film is spent in running. That doesn't necessarily makes the film bereft of sense and extremely difficult to follow, but that fact itself, hinders the proceedings from delivering a comprehensible narrative. 'The Gladers', still led by Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), are now on the run from the forces of WCKD, the mysterious organization that placed them in the Glade. What even worse, are Cranks, James Dashner's version of zombies, joining the pursuit. After seemingly endless cat and mouse chases, you'd be thankful to see them stumble upon a resistance movement, giving them a few moments to rest (that gives you a moment to rest from following them). But that's just a bump, because as soon as alliances are formed and a hint of the government's agenda, is revealed, it's marathon-time again.
See, that's what sends this sequel spiraling down from the heights the first film has soared past in 2014. It lacks genuine emotions, and there are barely plot developments well- knitted enough to spark interest. The marathon extravaganza hampers the characters to fully connect with each other, and engage in a conversation, lengthy enough to help us understand. That's maybe the problem for someone who hasn't read the book like me, ever loaded with 'how's and 'why's, which this sequel seems uninterested in answering, until the final chapter.
That being said, there are still some few things to commend, like the fact it has retained, if not improved, its scares and thrills. The Grievers are now replaced by hungrier and grotesquely more vicious Cranks, and the obstacles are updated, to provide more hair raising creeps. The first movie's $340million worldwide cume against its $34million budget has given this sequel a bigger financial resource for production, and you would thank that for 'The Scorch Trials' stunningly choreographed setpieces, looming up in and between adrenaline- propelled pursuits.
Some new characters, like Aiden Gillen's Rat-Man, are introduced, but the rest or more than half of movie's payroll's new names, are barely, if not efficiently, utilized. That's an inevitable additional layer to the heap of flaws that piled up for this outing, but it's extremely hard to completely shrug off the film, especially with an interesting, and riproaring climax, that pretty sets the stage for the trilogy's final phase. While that last chapter is yet to happen, let's pray for the last film to never get split into two. 6/10