Director: Wes Ball
Cast: Dylan O' Brien, Kaya Scodelano, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Dexter Darden, Alexander Flores, Jacob Lofland, Rosa Salazar, Aiden Gillan, Patricia Clarkson, Giancarlo Esposito.
The world seems obsessed with dystopian teen fantasies recently. You can't turn around in the cinema without a poster or advertisement for The Divergent Maze Games or some such. The month of September is no different bringing with it the release of the second in the Maze Runner franchise, The Scorch Trials.
Based in the book series by James Dashner the first film saw Thomas (Dylan O' Brien) plunged into a glade with a number of others boys having had his memory erased. With no idea who he is other than his name or where he is Thomas learns that he is in fact in a giant maze (hence the title). Along with the other boys in the glade (Gladers) he must try and escape the maze. When a girl appears in the
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Both the Hunger Games and the Divergent films employ strong female characters within the lead cast, whereas the female characters within Scorch Trials are either 'bad' or supporting. In a year that has seen a number of strong female led films such as Trainwreck and Mad Max: Fury Road it is a shame that a film aimed at a younger generation could not employ a stronger female role model.
What does work well in this film are the effects and the action. The views of an apocalyptic, destroyed city are impressive (although structurally there are certain plot holes) and the Cranks are genuinely scary at points, being reminiscent of Resident Evil style zombies. It comes as no surprise that director Wes Ball has a background in graphics and visual effects in projects such as Beginners and Star Trek. Making his feature film directorial debut with the original Maze Runner film the visual effects are one of the strongest aspects of both of the