Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials review – more spectacle, less character

Like the second instalment of Divergent – the cast of which you fully expect to meet coming the other way over the brow of the dystopian YA hill – Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials steps up the spectacle, replacing the enclosed mysteries of the first film with apocalyptic vistas and toppling cities through which our former Gladers must battle. Everyone is after their blood, from the sinister WCKD (pronounced “wicked”, to avoid any confusion) to the marauding Cranks, the latter mutated by the flare virus, which has turned them into extras from the House of the Dead videogame. Aidan Gillen works his sublimely suspicious swagger as the clearly untrustworthy Janson, while Patricia Clarkson goes once again for ice queen, even in the midst of a battlefield. With Will Poulter out of the picture, the series (from James Dashner’s bestsellers) loses a little character, but Lili Taylor is a welcome addition to the widening roster of respected stalwarts. As before, edits have achieved a 12A certificate, although with its scenes of torture, biological decay, and Coma-like horror, this remains borderline fare; parents contemplating taking younger children should be strongly dissuaded.