A sequel to “The Maze Runner” could’ve gone a number of ways, either changing directors (as “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” did), sticking too close to the books, or straying too far from them, and so on. Fortunately for us, Wes Ball returned, brought writer T.S. Nowlin back with him, and made a sequel that continues, builds upon, and bests just about every aspect of the original film.
“The Scorch Trials” is a scorcher (sorry) of a sequel, expanding the scope of the first movie into a sprawling, post-apocalyptic road movie that feels like the greatest hits of ’00s genre movies and video games collected within a single film. This flick has it all: political intrigue and conspiracy, spooky zombies, deadly scavenger pirates, a scrappy rebel resistance, cold-hearted betrayal, a cliffhanger ending, a hedonist end of the world orgy party, some of the best setpieces of the ’10s, and — of course — Giancarlo Esposito.
Sure, it may be a bit basic to rank the middle chapter of the trilogy the highest, but “The Scorch Trials” is simply, undeniably, the best film of the three. Heck, the fact that it deftly juggles so many returning characters while introducing new ones and with new environments, and still manages to be a pitch-perfect adaptation of both “The Maze Runner” novels and “The Last of Us” video game, is a testament to how much Ball was firing on all cylinders here. It’s hard to say which film features O’Brien’s finest hour as Thomas, but I’d argue for this one. His performance here proves he could not only carry a feature, but continue to find interesting new colors to the character.
Despite this ranking, let me reiterate: you cannot go wrong with “The Maze Runner” trilogy for a coherent and consistent experience. Despite its fan following, it still feels like the films are a bit under-seen and underrated, so hopefully this article will get those who haven’t been aware of the series or who’ve put off watching the films to give them a spin.
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