Left with the empty, suspenseful feeling of unfinished business from the first Maze Runner film, the next obvious action would be to take a trip along with the other many anxious teen fiction fans to my local movie theatre. The eerie, unsettling feeling that came with whether or not I could trust Teresa, the main female character who seemed so innocent and trustworthy in The Maze Runner, led me back to see the familiar faces of Thomas, Teresa, and the rest of the Glader gang.

Now, I’ll be honest and say that the book series, like many, gets less interesting as it goes on, and The Scorch Trials was no exception. The movie lives up to that stereotype as well, but watching it is a very different experience from reading the book. The beginning of the film, with intentions to resolve questions posed by the previous film’s cliffhanger and present new, suspenseful facts that cause a major twist in the plot, (no spoilers, but it’s not what you’d expect) is a great, shocking start, but as the film inches towards the dramatic, eventful climax, it just becomes slower and less interesting, causing one to feel almost bored at some points. Filled with larger-than-life special effects generally found in a sci-fi film, and non-stop action/fighting, the intricate plot written by James Dashner is certainly overshadowed. Hollywood, wanting to live up to its young, teen fan base’s expectations has turned the intelligent, yet suspenseful tone of the book into a zombie flick that has the intelligence of well, a zombie. While watching the endless action which generally tends to cause me to zone out, I continued to feel like something was off, or missing. Was it the incredible lack of chemistry between Dylan O’Brien and Kaya Scodelario/ Rosa Salazar, the actors who portray main characters of the story, Thomas, Teresa, and Brenda (The stereotypical teen fiction love triangle) or how the over-exaggerated, sleek stylization of the film seemed to overshadow the plot? Or was it the fact that this is the second film in a series, with little to be said about the journey to get to the end?

I’m not trying to say that there was absolutely nothing good about the film, on the contrary, I was extremely impressed with several aspects of it. The cinematography of the dimly-lit rooms and desolate, vast landscapes filled me with awe. The way Dylan O’Brien portrays Thomas, as a steady, unchanging character that you can count on, the leader that everyone wants to be lead by, is perfect and a shining light amongst the other slightly questionable actors. Also the addition of a new, more horrific enemy and introduction of new characters adds some fresh faces to the mix. But, there were just too many negative things about the film that aren’t worth sitting through two and a half hours in a crowded theatre for. My expectations weren’t even very high coming into this film, as I understood it would just turn out to be another dystopian teen fiction story about relationships and survival. But I did have a liking for this unique story, that started with the Maze Runner and stood out to me among other books with similar plots, and it was a disappointment to see characters that I connected with very much while reading the books seem like they were picked up and transferred into a kid’s mindless video game, zombies and fighting galore.

In the end, unless you like a lot of action or are really into special effects and hollywood-style, overly-glamorized storytelling I wouldn’t recommend seeing this film, especially if you haven’t seen the first film, or if you haven’t read the books. But if you are going to see it, see it for the unique plot that is building underneath, if you can find it.