Film review: Maze Runner: Scorch Trials

Maybe I’m a Maze Runner 2
The Maze Runner: Dylan O'Brian, Kaya Scodelario. PA Photo/Fox UK FilmThe Maze Runner: Dylan O'Brian, Kaya Scodelario. PA Photo/Fox UK Film
The Maze Runner: Dylan O'Brian, Kaya Scodelario. PA Photo/Fox UK Film

The first film based on James Dashner’s post-apocalyptic trilogy for young adults was unfairly dismissed as a testosterone-fuelled Hunger Games clone.

Wes Ball’s propulsive chase through a diabolical labyrinth killed off main characters in a clinical fashion and negated the need for back stories by burdening the teenage runners with amnesia.

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Fragmented memories gradually resurface in this entertaining sequel, which veers into grisly territory inhabited by The Walking Dead and World War Z, albeit within the boundaries of a 12A certificate.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials fills in some of the narrative blanks but always has one eye on the next thrilling action set piece, including a sprint through a topsy-turvy collapsed skyscraper that proves what goes up must come down – at stomach-lurching speed.

Intriguing questions about sacrifice in a world where death is the only freedom provide the cast with plentiful opportunities to wring out tears.

Director Ball borrows from The Lost World: Jurassic Park for one of his film’s nerve-racking crescendos and orchestrates frenetic encounters with the ravenous zombie-like Cranks.

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“I think hope is a dangerous thing,” counsels one character.

Maybe so, but on this evidence, we have every reason to hope for a fine finale, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, scheduled for release in January 2017.