“They want things that are as dangerous and as scary as they can get, and still be allowed to go see the movie. “With YA, we gotta keep finding things that are original,” said producer Wyck Godfrey of surprising viewers, pointing to his three teenage sons. This is one maze that you will find yourself modestly happy to be lost in.Ball said he wasn’t directing particularly for the (pre)teenage ticketholder - “I certainly didn’t make it as a YA thing, I just made it as a movie, and young people are in it,” he said - and the film just barely escaped its initial R-rating (it is rated PG-13). This in and of itself is not a novel idea, but it does make for an enjoyable two hours at the local theater. When our very childlike heroes embark into a very unchildlike world, they find that the Hobbesian prophecy of a world of all-against-all has taken hold. It uses these tools to modest success, asking questions about suicide, genocide, loyalty and most importantly, when the ends truly justify the means. The film uses its apocalyptic, zombie-infested setting to dream up all manner of situations to subject the characters to. There is real death in “The Scorch Trials,” and people are seldom labeled as merely good or evil. Morality play is a constant throughout the film, which keeps the world, and the people in it, interesting. While our Scooby-Doo gang of kids despises her, of course, it is easy to imagine a world in which she is seen as a dramatic anti-hero who is working toward ‘the greater-good.’ Therein lies the differentiator between “The Scorch Trials” and the vast majority of the genre’s films: there is still room for morally difficult and ambiguous situations, people and institutions.Īmidst the death and suffering she inflicts, WICKED’s seemingly cold and calculating leader, Ava Paige, even says “All of this is a mere means to an end.” What’s more, she instructs her sadistic agents to kill and harvest people while “inflicting as little pain as possible.” We soon learn that they are doomed to be a tool for the manufacture of a cure by WICKED. It seems as though all is lost for our fearless band of pubescent adolescents. WICKED has been systematically placing teens in these Mazes for research purposes related to the ongoing zombie apocalypse. Some die, but the others, led by Thomas-played with stoic and emotionless resolve by Dylan O’Brien-are taken by the group, World in Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department (WICKED). Prior to the “Scorch Trials,” a group of goony-like teens escape a most horrible maze. If, dear reader, you feel as though you simply must remain in blissful ignorance of any film you have even the mildest temptation to see, I suggest you avert your eyes from this critique. On the contrary, it is an astonishingly average film that entertains from start to finish.įor those unfamiliar with the original “Maze Runner,” I’m afraid spoilers are inevitable.
This is not to say that “The Maze Runner” is a poor film. “The Hunger Games,” “Ender’s Game,” etc). The film has a sense of familiarity to it, likely owed to the fact that it borrows heavily from its older, more successful forerunners within the genre (e.g. On paper, the latest iteration of “The Maze Runner” has all the tired tropes necessary for a teen dystopian flick: teenage angst, zombie apocalypse, teen romance and the fate of the world at stake.