The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, PG-13, ★★

Mmmmm....food.

YA adaptations...right? There has been not much momentum regarding that particular genre that persuades me to run to the theaters, as they se, ever since the second Hunger Games...and I am hoping that the last Hunger Games movie is good because of Jennifer Lawrence's presence. The difference between that movie and Harry Potter on one side and the other films such as The Divergent series and the Maze Runner series is that there is involvement and likability between the characters and an interesting story. The latter two series has some moments of interest factor but sort of feels episodic as we have to shift from one stage to another stage to tie up loose ends. While there's too much action and running for most of the time, we are invested with the undeveloped characters in this unorganized film. At times, it felt like my head was banging on a locker door for some minutes. It was sort of tiring.

Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and the rest of the Gladers - Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sanger), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), Minho (Ki-Hong Lee), Frypan (Dexter Darden) and Winston (Alexander Flores) are in a desolated city being chased by a horde of zombies called "Cranks", worst name to call them as they sound like a metal rock band group. The mercenaries escorting them fight them off as the Gladers head down to a facility, which is run by Janson (Aiden Gillan). It is the same sort of set-up like Insurgent in a way.

Frypan mentions a boy named Aris (Jacob Lofland) who has survived the longest in the Maze and in one mostly with girls. Janson calls Teresa's name among many names to supposedly go to a relocated place. Aris shows Thomas, one night, a room where they take a number of bodies for testing and research. Thomas question if that is where Teresa has gone to. The next day another group gets called and Thomas gets into a scuffle with a guard to steal his ID. Thomas discovers a room where they test people who is immune to The Flare.

Thomas gathers his comrades as they try to find Teresa. Thomas fends off Janson and the mercs and barely gets he and his friends out of there into the Scorch. Outside the building, they discover a few buildings as they are chased by more Cranks as they try to fend them off but one is attacked. The rest of the movie is filler.

I'm going to make it through the Scorch. 

This movie is no more than a chase movie and a stand-off with guns pointed at people and those are moments of neat action sequences but they are just pieces of a product, a product that has entertainment value and a suspense factor in the first half and boggles down into a filler piece of anecdotes, memories and chasing. All in all, it is mostly style over substance which basically does not have any support around its sequences other than finding Teresa. Plus, you predict what may happen to at least one character if he is not going to make it.

I wish Dylan O'Brien the best of luck in his career but this movie still does not highlight him as a star because his character pretends to be someone than actually be someone in comparison to Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen and even Tris. The other characters are mostly forgettable and the filmmakers throw in a corny love triangle that is in the screenplay just to get teenage girls gossiping over a meal to see what will happen.

The cinematography is fascinating as a whole and the set pieces are quite spot on and the tension is well-noticed in the first half of the movie. But, however, that structure and tone of the movie is gone as the movie turns into a boring filler-piece chase movie with zombies in the background. These are two genres that do not mesh together quite as well. It is like combing fish and chocolate for a meal. This is the second movie in the series that got me interested in the beginning but then loses badly in its material in the climax and the ending. Try harder, Maze Runner series. I hope you'll get to Hunger Games material.

**