Film Review - Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Keep On Running 

Film: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Cast: Dylan O’Brien Kaya Scodelario

Directed by: Wes Bell

Duration: 2 hrs 10 mins

Rating: * * 1/2

Even though I haven’t read the novels by James Dashner, I quite enjoyed The Maze Runner. It had enough substance to tell a story that is visually engrossing for a film going audience that may not have necessarily read the book. On that count, The Scorch Trials falls short. While it may not be boring to sit through it, it is not particularly engaging either. 

The bunch of teenagers led by Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) are out of the Glade but now they are in an underground bunker where he senses that something is amiss. WCKD (pronounced same as ‘wicked’) is the organization that controls it and they are upto something sinister. That’s when Thomas and his friends escape from there and run. For the rest of the film, they keep on running. Occasionally, there is a chase or actions scene to spruce up the otherwise pedestrian proceedings.

The CGI is impressive with the apocalyptic visuals of Los Angeles but beyond that, perhaps the book doesn’t have enough firepower to make it into an engrossing film. All we see is, the teenagers escaping from one place to another, fighting soldiers or zombies. 

Patricia Clarkson plays the doctor in charge of conducting the trials and harnessing ‘immune’ human beings to cure a certain virus. The issue of morality comes to the fore towards the end but without enough spunk.

On the whole, The Scorch Trials  is passable.  

Published in The Navhind Times on 27th Sept. 2015
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