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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Reviews / ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’ (PG) *

Maze Runner- The Scorch TrialsTHE plot of this sequel to last year’s futurist action fantasy based on a novel by James Dashner tries to answer the questions that its predecessor left hanging.

After surviving the Maze last year, the heroes get taken into durance vile that smiling villain Jansen (Aidan Gillen) manages for WCKD, which has divided humanity into those it wants to save and those it deems not worth saving. In time, chief scientist Paige (Patricia Clarkson) selects seven for their value as guinea pigs in trials for the cure of a malady that would wipe humanity out.

Here is the film’s only element of moral value.

Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) leads six other young men, picking up girlfriend Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) as they go, in a breakout involving much running, jumping and related violence.

Outside the facility, they find themselves in a devastated urban landscape. So they set off on foot across a desert toward the mountain range where they expect, even hope, to find a resistance group that has survived destruction.

Summing up, Wes Ball’s film is mediocre, boring crap offering spectacular visuals to distract attention from its otherwise chokingly-formulaic dramatic void. There’s scant development of either character or plot. It’s a drawn-out pursuit saga using resources that any apocalypse worth its salt would render inaccessible. Petroleum, for example.

God bless America. Without gas-guzzlers and guns, where would Hollywood’s vision of its future be? “The Scorch Trials” portends a further sequel.

At all cinemas

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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