Movie of the Week: The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner 2)

What a mess this movie is. I saw Maze Runner, but still spent the first half hour of this wondering what the hell was happening. I hope the book has more clarity. I suspect it does.

Visually it has some good outdoor settings, though it retreats to the obligatory derelict factory for a fair bit of the movie. And when will moviemakers read the Evil Overlord list? In particular the point that it makes: "When I am Evil Overlord I will not have air ducts big enough for a perspn to crawl through."

Plotwise, the kids who escaped the Maze in the first movie (all boys except for Teresa) now have a new set of trials to face. The good guys who rescued them at the end of the Maze Runner turn out not to be so good after all and they have to go on the run into the scorch - the wasteland peopled by zombie-like victims of a plague to which our kids are immune and therefore very valuable (biologically).

Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger from Game of Thrones) plays the chief bad guy, channelling Gary Oldman. The lead character, Thomas is played by Dylan O'Brien and Teresa is played by Kaya Scodelario who looks like a bland version of Evangeline Lilly (who I like). Sadly, neither actor is memorable or even particularly noticeable. Thomas Brodie Sangster (Game of Thrones, Wolf Hall) is a more interesting actor, but gets little to do here, though the little he does, he does well. Sangster could probably have played the lead in this with one brain cell tied behind his back. Ditto Rosa Salazar as Brenda. Hopefully she'll be in the third movie in the trilogy (Please, gods, I hope they don't make the last book into two!)

In the current trio of teens-against-dystopia trilogies/quartets: Hunger Games, Divergent/Insurgent and Maze Runner, Maze Runner comes a very poor third. Pity because i would have so liked to like it.

The only upside was that the set of trailers they showed with this bodes well for the rest of the year: Star Wars (yay!) Bond - Spectre, Pan, The Martian and Mockingjay. in particular I've been waiting for the theatreical trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Hopefully Disney has done it justice and we can all forget about Episodes 1, 2 and 3 and reset to 4, 5 and 6 (i.e. the original three) and beyond.