Rating of
1.5/4
Continued Sequel Setup and Lots More Running
Unknown - wrote on 09/21/15
The first 'Maze Runner' was a decent mystery/action-thriller that was brought down by a lackluster payoff and poor characters. Well, this second outing doesn't improve on either of those things. This is essentially the same movie, only minus the mystery. We find out that the absurd reasonings for the Maze testing (revealed at the end of the first) don't really matter when the overall goal involves using the teens' bodies for science. It's a stupid revelation that makes the whole proceedings amount to very little. There's barely a story present this time. The entire movie consists of the main hero kids running from one safe place to another. It's a series of set-pieces that are taken from numerous other action/sci-fi movies. The action is well shot and comes close to thrilling at times. However, all of these crazy encounters add up to zero plot and character development. After two movies with these kids, I could not tell you a single thing about them. They are blank slates devoid of emotion. Nothing is accomplished by the end of this movie. We learn a couple of facts at the beginning and the rest is nonsensical filler. One could say that this is setup for another sequel, but that's what it shouldn't be. And what exactly is setup here? The fact that we now know for sure who the good guys and bad guys are? That's literally it! You could condense the first movie into a first act, then condense this one into half of a second act, and then condense the inevitable third movie into the remaining runtime. Unless of course the third is also filler and there are more movies afterward (hope not). It's slick looking, fast paced, and has some singular moments of entertaining action. All of that doesn't matter when the movie is hollow and un-engaging.
