Maze Runner: Scorch Trials
It's not bad; it's just not amazing.
To make a popular movie franchise these days all you need, or so it would seem, is a series of teen novels. Vampires are out these days, as are wizards. I suggest something in a youth rebellion/uprising set in a dystopian but not-too-distant future. Throw in a spatter of young love, a reluctant yet capable hero, and a Big Brother style evil corporation/government, and voilà. We've seen the Hunger Games, Divergent and, of course, a little over twelve months ago now, we had the Maze Runner. A film about a community of boys with no memories, called 'Gladers' (because they live in the Glade, you see). They all find themselves trapped in a giant maze full of nasty robo-monsters that kill you if they catch you. The action centered around new boy Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), whose late arrival and lack of memory allowed for a very convenient exposition, and whose determination to make it through the maze leads to startling discoveries about the world that they inhabit, paving the way to this sequel. Will they survive? Will they make it through the maze? Did they already make it through the maze in the first movie? I don't know, I can't remember. Either way, Thomas and co are back, and wherever they are, they'll have to outrun a lot of stuff, I'm sure.
This film, like the first one, features an ensemble cast of fine young actors such as Kaya Scodelario (Skins), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones), and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), but everything is done with such broad strokes that some of the characters are little more than paper thin. The script also lets the film down with clunky dialogue and unescesary over-explanation of a trope filed and cliché ridden story.
Having said that, I'm hardly the target audience, at least it's a break from comic book movies, and for those young enough not to have seen this all before, then, y'know, watch this. Because it's not bad; it's just not amazing.
5/10
To make a popular movie franchise these days all you need, or so it would seem, is a series of teen novels. Vampires are out these days, as are wizards. I suggest something in a youth rebellion/uprising set in a dystopian but not-too-distant future. Throw in a spatter of young love, a reluctant yet capable hero, and a Big Brother style evil corporation/government, and voilà. We've seen the Hunger Games, Divergent and, of course, a little over twelve months ago now, we had the Maze Runner. A film about a community of boys with no memories, called 'Gladers' (because they live in the Glade, you see). They all find themselves trapped in a giant maze full of nasty robo-monsters that kill you if they catch you. The action centered around new boy Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), whose late arrival and lack of memory allowed for a very convenient exposition, and whose determination to make it through the maze leads to startling discoveries about the world that they inhabit, paving the way to this sequel. Will they survive? Will they make it through the maze? Did they already make it through the maze in the first movie? I don't know, I can't remember. Either way, Thomas and co are back, and wherever they are, they'll have to outrun a lot of stuff, I'm sure.
This film, like the first one, features an ensemble cast of fine young actors such as Kaya Scodelario (Skins), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones), and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), but everything is done with such broad strokes that some of the characters are little more than paper thin. The script also lets the film down with clunky dialogue and unescesary over-explanation of a trope filed and cliché ridden story.
Having said that, I'm hardly the target audience, at least it's a break from comic book movies, and for those young enough not to have seen this all before, then, y'know, watch this. Because it's not bad; it's just not amazing.
5/10
