The Scorch Trials

The teenagers from The Maze Runner still aren’t sure where they are, how they got there, or where they’re going.

Their latest post-apocalyptic adventure, The Scorch Trials, is the second adaptation from the series of young-adult novels by James Dashner. And although the setting might be different, many of the pitfalls are the same.

In other words, it’s an exercise in style over substance in which character development (somewhat by design, given the concept) mostly takes a back seat to special effects and extended chase sequences that threaten to tear the gang apart.

Newcomers might be left scratching their heads as the story picks up with the surviving Gladers, led by Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), having escaped from the maze, only to find themselves unsure about what to do next. They wind up in the Scorch, a landscape of barren dunes littered with opportunistic drifters, some of which reluctantly team up just to survive. Thomas hears of a band of resistance fighters against WCKD, the mysterious organization that put them all in this situation in the first place. Yet an effort to join forces with them proves both challenging and perilous.

Both Maze Runner films have followed a frustrating trend amid this glut of dystopian science-fiction franchises – refusing to stand out on their own in favor of a teasing cliffhanger ending that forces viewers to cough up money for another ticket in another year to see how the story really resolves itself. Not only is such a strategy lazy, but it’s also greedy and presumptuous.

At least its predecessor, also directed with some visual flair by Wes Ball, had a cool premise and a fresh set of characters. This time around, it feels like the resourceful protagonists survive a series of harrowing close calls with creepy villains, sadistic creatures and other seemingly insurmountable obstacles right out of the Indiana Jones playbook, only to wind up back in essentially the same narrative place where they started, trying to sort through trust and loyalty issues and how to rebel against the evil corporate greed behind it all.

There are some tense moments along the way, yet as with many middle sequels in predetermined franchises, Scorch Trials feels mostly designed as another link in the chain. Perhaps the next installment will actually provide the real thrills instead of postponing them.

Rated PG-13, 131 minutes.