It Came From The Cineplex: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was written by T.S. Nowlin and directed by Wes Ball.

Nowlin co-wrote the original film with Noah Oppenheim and Grant Pierce Myers. Wes Ball directed the original as well. Amazingly, this is the second film he's ever directed. 

I liked the first film for the most part. I thought the Maze and its mysterious origin made the movie feel like a big budget Twilight Zone episode. Then they revealed the reason behind the Maze, and suddenly I didn't like it so much anymore. Better to have left the ending vague, with Thomas and Minho discovering the exit and going through as the screen faded to black. That certainly would have been preferable to the vague, nonsensical explanation we got. Any time you have a story with a big central mystery, answering it is nearly always a letdown. The audience can always imagine something much better than the actual answer.

The Scorch Trials opens up the Maze Runner world quite a bit, adding destroyed cities, vast deserts, Mad Max-style societies and hordes of pseudo-zombies to the mix. Unfortunately it doesn't add much in the way of plot, as the characters simply dash from one expensive set piece to another.

Character development takes a big hit in this installment as well. Anyone who isn't Thomas is little more than set dressing this time around. When one of the characters is bitten by a zombie and begins turning into one, we're obviously supposed to be saddened and concerned by his fate. Unfortunately all I could think was, "Who the hell is this kid? Was he even in the first movie?"

The first film had an identity all its own, as it concerned a group of kids trying to survive a deadly maze. The Scorch Trials has no such uniqueness. It's all over the place, as it cribs elements from outbreak movies, post apocalyptic films and even zombie movies.

Despite the title, there are no mazes in this followup, but there is a lot of running. Lots and lots of running. There's no time to breathe or think about what it all means, as the minute they arrive at a point, it's time to head to the next one.They rarely if ever stand still, like they're afraid if they stop for even a second, the audience will lose interest and start diddling with their phones.

Most of these YA film series are action packed, but also contain a message for those willing to look below the surface. The Hunger Games is about the evils of the media. The Insurgent series is an allegory against conformity (I think). The Maze Runner films though... I have no idea what they're about. Socialized medicine? Thinking outside the box (or the maze)? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? I'm honestly not sure.

One last thing— I haven't read any of the books, but I assumed that this was a trilogy, like the majority of Young Adult series. Well, not quite. Turns out there are a whopping FIVE books in the series! There's the main Maze Runner Trilogy, plus two prequel books. So does that mean there are gonna be five movies? As long as they make money, I'd say yes. Steel yourself, gang, we may still have three more movies to get through.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

The film picks up right where the last one left off, which will be mighty confusing to anyone walking into this one cold. The survivors of the Maze— Thomas (our hero), Minho, Teresa, Newt, Frypan and Winston— are all whisked away by helicopter to an unknown facility. It's run by Mr. Janson (played by Game Of Thrones' Aiden Gillen), who assures them that he and the facility have absolutely nothing to do with WCKD (the evil organization that built the Maze).

Janson explains that Not-WCKD is a safe haven and provides food and shelter for the many Immunes from the various Mazes (yep, there were more than one!). Once a day Janson selects several Immunes who will be taken to yet another even more special sanctuary. Thomas is suspicious of Janson and Not-WCKD, especially when he notices Teresa is missing.

Aris, a survivor from another Maze, contacts Thomas and tells him all is not what it seems in Not-WCKD. The two sneak out of their rooms and explore the facility. They find a secret lab housing all the previously taken Immunes in giant tubes. They're apparently being harvested for their precious bodily fluids, which can cure the Flare (the world-wide plague that decimated the world). Thomas also overhears Janson talking to Ava Paige, the evil scientist who runs WCKD, and who apparently got better after seemingly killing herself in the previous film. Gosh, it's a WCKD facility after all! Who would have guessed? Janson tells Paige that he's close to locating and wiping out the Right Arm, a resistance group located in the mountains.

Thomas finds Teresa and rescues her, and he and his group escape the Not-WCKD facility. They're unprepared for life outside though, in the lifeless Scorch. They hole up in an abandoned mall, but are attacked by Cranks (humans turned into zombies by the Flare virus). Winston is bitten by a Crank, and the group barely escapes for their lives.

They trudge through the endless Scorch, trying to make it to the mountains and the Right Hand. Winston begins turning into a Crank and kills himself. The rest make it to a hidden base at the foot of the mountains. There they meet Jorgé and his adopted daughter Brenda. Jorgé is an opportunist and plans to hand the group over to WCKD for a hefty fee. Just then WCKD attacks Jorgé's base and kills nearly everyone in it. Jorgé, Brenda and Thomas' group flee and eventually find the Right Arm camp high in the mountains.

Brenda was bitten by a Crank during their escape, and Vince (played by Barry Pepper), the leader of the Right Arm, wants to kill her before she turns. Mary (played by Lily Taylor), the group's doctor, synthesizes a serum from Thomas' blood that stops the Flare virus. Unfortunately it doesn't cure it, and she'll need regular injections of Thomas' blood for the rest of her life.

WCKD manages to track down the camp and blows it to smithereens. Teresa reveals she contacted WCKD and told them their location. Apparently WCKD restored her wiped memory, and she's now working for them, believing they only want to cure the Flare. Paige and Janson take Minho, Teresa and a bunch of other Immunes back to WCKD, leaving Thomas and a handful of survivors behind. Thomas convinces the others they have to fight back and overthrow WCKD once and for all, as the screen fades to black.

Thoughts:

• Just a reminder that WCKD stands for World in Catastrophe Killzone experiment Department, which tells me someone reeeeeeally wanted it to spell "wicked."

• After reaching the sanctuary, Thomas and his group take much needed showers. In true movie fashion, Thomas places one hand against the wall and stares at the floor as the water pours over him. HAW! I couldn't help but laugh.

Does ANYONE ever take a shower like that in real life?

• The Not-WCKD facility features massive air vents that are wide enough and sturdy enough for a person to crawl through. Just like in 95% of movies and TV shows.

• At the end of the film there's a big ol' full screen credit that reads, "Costume Design By Sanja Milkovic Hays." Seriously? Someone designed these outfits? 

It looks more like Hays drove to North Face, bought all the jackets, shirts, pants and boots they had, dragged them behind her car for a few miles and then passed them out to the cast.

The only costumes I saw that might have actually been designed were the WCKD troopers and Ava Paige's white "Cruella de Vil" coat.

• Patricia Clarkson plays evil WCKD leader Eva Paige. Every time she was onscreen, I couldn't help but think of Tammy I from Parks & Recreation. She even acted like Tammy I!

• Aiden Gillen plays Mr. Janson, Eva Paige's evil minion. Gillen would make a really good live action Reed Richards if Fox ever decides to make a good Fantastic Four movie. One that doesn't feature an all-teen cast, like their recent abomination, that is. He's even got the requisite graying temples!

• As is the law in most scifi movies, this one features 3D holograms, but with visible scan lines and less resolution than an old school picture tube TV. Why do they always do that? Why would futuristic video technology look worse than what we have now?

I guess they do this to help sell the idea we're watching a screen and not a live person, but surely there's a better way.

• As Thomas and Aris snoop around Not-WCKD, they find a lab full of giant tubes, each containing a large flea-like monstrosity. 

I guess they were supposed to be the Grievers, the monsters that populated the Maze in the previous film. Oddly enough, no one ever comments on them. Not even a perfunctory, "I say, what the heck are those giant weevil things?"

• Once again I have to mention the awesome spectacle of Minho's massive shelf of hair. It juts out a good six to eight inches over his forehead, like the bill of a baseball cap. It's really quite impressive.

* As they're crossing the vast desert of the Scorch, Minho drains the last few drops of water from his canteen. He looks at it for a few seconds, then throws it away in disgust. Hey, might as well, Minho! I'm sure you won't ever be needing something to hold water in ever again!

• The Crank zombies were pretty impressive and gruesome looking. That said, some of the more advanced specimens appeared to have tendrils or roots growing out of them, looking a lot like the Infected in The Last Of Us video game.

• Ava Paige's giant WCKD transport ship looks a lot like the Hunter Killers from the Terminator films. A LOT. It looks for all the world like they took a Hunter Killer model and stuck two more engines on it and called it a day.

• Lily Taylor plays Mary, the Right Arm's resident doctor. It's always good to see her in anything. Unfortunately she's killed off way too soon.

• When Thomas and his group arrive at the Right Arm's camp, Mary, their resident doctor, tends to Brenda's wound. She synthesizes a serum from Thomas' blood, which treats, but doesn't cure, the Flare virus in her system. She tells Thomas that Brenda will need these injections for the rest of her life, or she'll turn into a Crank.

Jorgé thanks Thomas of the blood, and says he doesn't know what he'd do if anything ever happened to Brenda. Um... Jorgé did just hear Mary say Brenda will need Thomas' blood serum from now on, right? It's a treatment, not a cure. 

And what happens after Mary's killed? Does anyone else in the Right Arm know how to make the serum? Seems to me like Brenda's screwed.

• Since this is the second part of a trilogy (unless they split part three into two lucrative halves), I knew it would end on a cliffhanger. Trouble was there were about ten spots where it could have ended, but it kept going and going and going and...

I came close to shouting, "Just end it already!"

• At the end of the film, things look pretty grim for our heroes. WCKD has captured Minho and dozens of other Immunes and is taking them back to their lab to grind them into medicine or whatever they're doing. Thomas and his handful of survivors decide enough's enough, and vow to overthrow WCKD once and for all.

Since they're hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the outlook's not so good. They're going to need reinforcements. I predict they'll discover yet another hidden rebel group somewhere in the mountains. One that has a large, highly trained army and is equipped with guns, ammo and vehicles.

That's exactly what happened in The Hunger Games and the Divergent series. In each case, the ragtag heroes didn't have a chance against their technologically superior enemy until they discovered a heretofore unknown army, pulled directly out of the writer's ass. I expect the same thing to happen here.

• When everyone agrees to side with Thomas and attack WCKD, they ask him what his amazing plan is. The camera cuts to a closeup of him, and fades to black before he can open his mouth. Eh, don't worry about it, he'll tell you his plan same time next year!

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials features much more action than the origin, and opens up the series' world. Unfortunately it does so at the expense of plot and character development. I give it a B-.

It Came From The Cineplex: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner was written by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers and T.S. Nowlin, and was directed by Wes Ball. It's based on the novel of the same name by James Dashner. Ball is primarily a visual effects artist, and this is his first shot at directing a big-budget movie. He does a decent enough job with the script he's given.

Sigh... another day, another Young Adult Dystopian Sci-Fi story. The Maze Runner takes its place along other such stories such as The Hunger Games, Divergence, Matched, Delirium, Life As We Knew It and many others. Bookstores and Hollywood alike love these things. And why not? They're big business right now. Teen readers and moviegoers can't seem to get enough of them. These stories are like a license to print money.

The formula's pretty simple. First you invent a futuristic fascist society, which, let's face it, is pretty much how most teens see the world. Second, drop in a young protagonist who just doesn't fit in, so the target audience will identify with them. Add a love triangle and throw in a rebellion against the oppressors. Drag the story out into a trilogy (or in most cases these days, a quadrology), then sit back and watch the money roll in.

The Maze Runner is a prime example of this formula. It's an interesting sci-fi story with an unusual setup and an intriguing mystery to solve. Unfortunately everything unravels at the end, as the origin of the Maze is a big letdown that makes little or no sense. Better they should have left the mystery unsolved.

The film also spends far too much time setting up the inevitable sequels at the expense the current story. Gotta make sure there are dangling plot threads so the audience comes back next year, right?

In addition to being similar to The Hunger Games and its ilk, it reminds me a bit of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series. In Riverworld, every person who ever lived and died on Earth is resurrected along the banks of a million mile long river, which is bordered by sheer thousand foot high cliffs on each side. After a while a group of adventurous souls decide to sail up the river to try and discover where they are, why they're there and who's responsible for it all. Sounds pretty similar, eh?

The movie was originally scheduled to premiere in February 2014, but was pushed back to September 2014. It's generally regarded as a bad sign when a movie gets delayed, but it turned out OK here.

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD, INCLUDING THE SECRET BEHIND THE MAZE!

The Plot:
A teenaged boy wakes up inside a rusty elevator, with no idea where or even who he is. At the top of the elevator shaft, he finds himself in a large meadow called the Glade, which is surrounded on all four sides by the walls of an enormous Maze. He's welcomed by a group of other teen boys who arrived the same way he did. After a day or so he remembers his name is Thomas, but that's all he can remember.

As Thomas becomes part of the makeshift society set up by the Gladers, he learns that they're are trapped in the center of the Maze, which is guarded by terrifying, unseen creatures called Grievers who come out at night. Unlike the rest of the boys, he's intensely curious as to the nature of their situation and why they're there. He eventually becomes a Runner, one of an elite group who explores the Maze during the day.

After many excursions into the Maze, Thomas and another runner called Minho discover a door that leads out. They take a group through the doorway, and discover the disappointing secret of the Maze.

Thoughts:
• This film is a prime example of why screenwriters should think twice about resolving their mysteries. Think about how many intriguing setups were ruined by mediocre payoffs. Under The Dome, The Village, Identity, Cube, and the grandaddy of them all, LOST. No matter how good you think your explanation may be, it's going to be a letdown because the audience can always imagine something better.

• When Thomas first arrives, he can't remember anything, not even his name. Alby, the leader of the Gladers, tells him his name will come to him in a couple of days.

Some of the other Gladers' names: Gally, Newt, Frypan and Zart. Hmm. Those are not names. Did their memories get scrambled? Or is this one of those deals where everyone in the future has some weirdo name like Katniss and Peeta?

• Alby tells Thomas that he was the first Glader and he's been there about three years. Once a month the elevator comes to the surface and brings supplies and a fresh Glader. Based on that formula and doing the math, there should have been fewer than 36 Gladers in the Maze (since a few died over the years). It certainly looked like there were more than 36 in the crowd scenes.

In the book it's explained that the elevator brought up more than one Glader at a time. But this ain't the book, and Alby specifically states it's one a month.

• Thomas hears a terrifying roar, and Alby tells him there are monsters patrolling the Maze. He matter-of-factly says they're called "Grievers," the same way you'd point up and say "That's called the sky." Sorry, Alby, they're not called that, that's the cockamamie "future slang" name you gave to them.

Chuck tells Thomas that no one knows what the Grievers even look like. They're so deadly that nobody has ever seen one and lived to tell about it. Then Thomas is attacked by Ben, who was stung by a Griever and is going through the "Changing," some sort of deadly disease. So in other words Ben saw a Griever and lived to tell about it, right? Then why doesn't anyone know what they look like?

One last thing about the Grievers. They had a pretty cool design; half fleshy monster, half robotic spider. Or at least I think they looked cool. We never really get a good look at them, as they're shown in shadows most of the time, and director Ball seems to be in love with the "shaky cam" fight scene technique.

• Why does the Maze look so old? When Thomas and Minho run inside it, the walls are crumbling and moss covered and look like they've been there for centuries. Isn't the Maze only three years old? Did the builders deliberately make it look old to hide its true age from the Gladers?

• Thomas suggests to Newt that they try to climb the Maze walls, to see if there's a way out. Newt causally dismisses his plan. Thomas then tries to offer more ideas, but Newt shuts him down each time before he can even finish speaking. Newt says that whatever ideas he has, they've already tried them.

How the hell does he know that? What if Thomas was about to suggest skinning a few of the weaker Gladers and making a hot air balloon from their hides? I bet they hadn't thought of that one! 

It just seemed irresponsible to not even listen to someone's plan before shooting it down.

• So once a month the elevator comes to the surface, bringing a new captive along with barrels full of supplies for the Gladers. Apparently among the supplies they bring are plenty of hair care items. Virtually every character sports freshly cut locks, loaded with tons of "product."

We're told that everyone in the Glade has a specific job in order to help them all survive. I'm guessing one of the boys must have been designated the official hair stylist.

• Speaking of styling, Minho the Runner had this impressively huge shelf of hair that juts out seven or eight inches past his forehead, like the bill of a baseball hat. If they ever make a live action Jonny Quest movie, this is what his hair would look like.

• Gally is the movie's Designated Asshole. You know, the character who makes things difficult for the hero for no other reason than because the script says so. Every story has to have one. Think Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, or Joffrey in Game Of Thrones.

• The Gladers have three rules. Number Two is "Never Hurt Another Glader." Gally violates this one several times during the film, but no one ever calls him on it.

• Every night at dark, the massive doors to the Maze close and grinding noises come from within. Minho tells Thomas this is the sound of the Maze changing. It does this every night so the Runners can't memorize its pattern.

Later he takes Thomas into a hut and shows him an elaborate model he made of the maze. He admits that he and the other Runners have mapped out the entire thing, and there's no exit. They're keeping this a secret though, so the other Gladers don't lose hope. 

Um... didn't Minho say the Maze changes every night? How do you make a model– or a map– of something that's constantly changing? Whoops!

• A month after Thomas arrives, the elevator comes to the surface again. This time it brings a girl! A girl who seems to know Thomas, and who's carrying a note saying she's "the last one ever" to be added to the Glade.

A couple things here. First off I'm convinced that the filmmakers deliberately chose an actress (Kaya Schdelario) who looks more like Kristen Stewart than Kristen Stewart does, in the hopes that the cachet of her Twilight films would rub off on their production.

Secondly, the movie completely avoids the fact that it's just introduced a girl into a colony of horny teenaged boys, some of whom haven't seen a female in three years. I realize they've got plot points to hit and don't have time to examine how this will affect the fragile Glader society, but would it have killed them to have Newt decree a "Hands Off" policy?

Maybe the Maze builders added some kind of anti-boner drug to the Glader's monthly supplies.

• Thomas and Minho eventually find a way out of the Maze. They convince most of the other Gladers to follow them, so they can all escape. WARNING! I'm gonna be discussing the reasons behind the Maze here, so this is your last chance to turn back!

The Gladers exit the Maze and discover a lab full of dead scientists. Before they can wonder what's going on, a monitor flickers to life, and a recording of Ava Paige, the head scientist, proceeds to info dump the origin of the Maze to them.

So what's the big mystery? What's the reason behind the Maze? Did aliens build it to study humanity? Did the gods create it to amuse themselves? Is it a manifestation of Hell itself?

Nope, it's none of those. Instead it seems the Earth has been decimated by a gigantic solar flare. If that wasn't enough, shortly afterward an epidemic (also confusingly called the Flare) rose up and killed off even more of the population. A group of scientists formed the World In Catastrophe Killzone experiment Department, known as WCKD (pronounced "wicked"), which may possibly be the most tortured and contrived acronym I've ever heard. WCKD built the Maze to research why certain youths are immune to the Flare, in hopes that a cure could be found.

That's it? Are you flipping kidding me? THAT'S why they built the Maze? These scientists are survivors of a global cataclysm. Manpower and resources are no doubt stretched very thin. In the middle of all this chaos and want, they somehow managed to construct an enormous, miles-wide Maze for the sole purpose of observing the subjects within. And in some mysterious way that's left unexplained, this is supposed to lead to a cure for a disease.

I honestly don't get it. I've approached this explanation from every possible direction, and I just do not understand it. Wouldn't all those resources have been better spent studying the Gladers' blood or brain tissue, to see why they're immune and to possibly synthesize a cure? Isn't that how normal scientists operate? No one in their right mind builds a goddamned maze to find a cure for the flu.

You can't even use the excuse that it's a "survival of the fittest" kind of trial, because strength had nothing to do with surviving or navigating the Maze. 

I really liked the film and was totally onboard with it right up until the end, and then it just lost me. I honestly wish they'd have just shown the Gladers walk through the exit of the Maze and faded to black, leaving us to imagine what they find on the other side. That would have been a hundred times better than the limp, wheezing ending we got.

• Ava Paige, the lead scientist who's been screwing with the Gladers for the past three years, is played by Patricia Clarkson, who was none other than Tammy 1, Ron Swanson's first wife on Parks & Recreation! Perfect casting!

• After the Gladers learn the truth about the Maze, they prepare to head for the exit and the world beyond. Before they can do so, Gally shows up with a gun, determined to stop them. 

How in the name of sanity did he catch up with the group? They left him way back in the Glade, and despite the fact he'd never been in the Maze before, he somehow managed to follow their course and find them in minutes. Did they leave a trail of breadcrumbs for him?

• After Gally's dispatched, a group of soldiers bursts into the lab, grab the Gladers and hurry them out. Are they the good guys? Terrorists? Mercenaries? Well, you'll have to come back next year to find out. This is Part One of a planned trilogy, dontcha know, so we can't answer every little question you have just yet.

• The Gladers are then whisked into a helicopter and as it takes off, we see that the Maze was sitting in the middle of a vast, lifeless desert (no doubt the result of the solar flare), under a leaden gray sky. 

So when they were inside the Maze, why was the sky always blue? And how the hell did it rain in the Glade? Apparently such questions are none of our business, as it's never addressed, and probably won't be in the subsequent Maze-less sequels.

Also, the Glade in the center of the Maze was lush and green, filled with trees and grass. If the scientists had the technology to build a budding oasis in the middle of a desert, why couldn't they have used it everywhere? Why not spend their resources replanting the scorched Earth instead of wasting it building a Maze for sketchy (at best) reasons? 

I'm starting to think the scientists resented the Gladers' immunity to the Flare and built the Maze just to torture them for their own amusement.

The Maze Runner has an intriguing premise and starts out strong, feeling much like a big budget Twilight Zone episode. Unfortunately it crashes and burns in the third act, as the less than compelling reasons for the Maze are revealed. Better they should have left it a mystery. I give it a B.