Rating: Everyone always talks about superhero fatigue, but what about young adult sci-fi fatigue? Those movies are just as prevalent as their spandex-clad counterparts - both "sub-genres" offered up three entries this year - and what the adaptations of teen fiction lack in the longevity of those from comic books, they more than make up for in a head-banging lack of diversity. You see, while superheroes have had their various stages of development (initial boom, gritty reboot, shared universes) push filmmakers to try new things, YA has only one setting - Hunger Games imitation. Ever since that series became a billion dollar venture, everyone's being trying to cash in, no matter how careless it seems. The Maze Runner may not be as blatant about this as rip-off leader Divergent, but it's certainly lazier in its attempts to cultivate a Panem-size hit. The films, and I can only assume the books that inspired them, may appear to be ticking all the requisite boxes, but they're totally missing what made the Jennifer Lawrence-vehicle reach beyond those obsessed with Suzanne Collins's novels. And that was how meticulously the world was constructed - they had their own history and semi-believable societal structure. With The Maze Runner it's kept painfully vague what exactly this future is, at first for narrative tension but over time seemingly because author Philip Straub was making it up as he went along; at the end of the first book, or at least the film, the curtain was pulled back only to reveal another, bigger curtain. There is a better attempt to explain the world in sequel, called The Scorch Trials because that sounds cool rather than actually making sense, but it's mostly centred around answering questions left purposely hanging from the last movie than providing its own new story. The plot is thus very fractured and choppy, and pretty reliant on remembering what happened in the previous film. The basic idea is that the kids who survived the deadly maze (incidentally, why they were in the maze is still unanswered) are on the run from Wicked, a company that clearly has a terrible PR department, who want them because reasons. In fact, when you think about it that's both the premise and the plot - very little story actually happens for much of the runtime, and when it does it'll invariably wind up feeling incidental twenty minutes later. In amongst the pointless divergences there's lots sudden action to try and create the illusion of forward momentum, which mostly involve our oversized group of heroes taking a break from standing about in trailer poses to run from faceless bad guys. It's empty, exhausting and built almost entirely on convenience, ensuring you're never involved after the sudden jolt into movement. At one point a character says he's sick of running". You and me both, bub. Occasionally you will get a burst of ingenuity - a cool camera angle here or borderline interesting idea there - but they're rendered worthless by a terrible story that doesn't understand its events or characters. As I left the cinema, one of the tween target audience tried to explain the plot to her far-less-interested friend and even she seemed to struggle finding sense or purpose in it. I can't really blame her - the film is all set-up, with only a brief climax serving as an interlude before setting up the next movie. And, naturally, that once again involves a lot of dangling plot threads. I'm sick of episodic movie making, where a single story is stretched out over multiple films often years apart. Yes, superhero flicks now have that to some degree with their interconnected continuity, but at least there's always still an attempt to tell a standalone tale. The Scorch Trials is just a long bridge between the beginning and end that we'll call the middle by pure placement rather than actual narrative content. The Maze Runner is still yet to answer its intrinsic questions, and won't for another bloody year an a half, when The Death Cure (I'm sure that'd be a spoiler if I cared about the story) hits. Heck, it'll be probably take even longer. Don't be surprised if it's announced the final book is going to be split in two at the last minute. Y'know, just so they can best tell this intricately planned story. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is in cineams now.
