MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS (12A, 131 mins)

Director: Wes Ball

2 stars

Released this time last year, The Maze Runner was one of the more successful examples of young adult fiction properties looking for a slice of the action in the wake of the triumph of The Hunger Games.

Where Divergent started out mediocre and then just got worse, and the likes of The Host and The Giver exploded on the launch pad, The Maze Runner offered a well-realised world while sowing seeds for further exploration. Unfortunately that early promise has been somewhat squandered in this lumpen sequel that does nothing to separate it from the herd.

It doesn’t provide much in the way of re-cap, so the pertinent facts are that a group of youngsters found themselves trapped in a walled area called the Glade, which was separated from whatever lay beyond by a monster-filled maze.

As we join it here, a small band led by Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) have escaped the Glade to learn that they're part of a program run by Dr Paige (Patricia Clarkson) intent on finding a cure for the Flare, a virus which has ravaged the planet.

Where the first movie was keen to promote a mystery, with characters not even knowing their own names at first, this starts us out with a hint of backstory and flashback, as Thomas as a young boy is put into the care of Dr Paige by his mother.

Now he and his friends are at a facility run by Aidan Gillen, which seems as much a prison as anything, immediately raising questions of who can be trusted. It transpires they weren’t the only maze, but just one group among a handful of young people who appear to be immune to the virus.

True to futuristic sci-fi tropes, Thomas discovers a conspiracy in which they're being harvested in order to find a cure, leading them to bust out and into the Scorch, a desert world that’s all that remains of our planet.

Where the first film seemed fresh and had a number of distinctive characters to get behind, this feels like Young Adult by numbers, full of crumbling cities and grubby resistance groups. It’s dark and grim and hope is thin on the ground, though that isn’t a bad thing, and it’s probably one of the least youngster-oriented of YA adaptations.

With victims of the Flare exhibiting zombie-like behaviour, for a while the movie turns into World War Z, which does it absolutely no favours either.

So not only is it dry during the setup phase, the midsection is just a lot of running and hiding and fighting monsters. Where the first film had a clear selling point, this rambles vaguely between locations and antagonists, presenting scenarios that are much too familiar from other dystopian fantasies.

In fairness the visual effects are first rate, but dialogue is mostly exposition. It’s a big sprawling mess with a couple of good sequences, but lacking the characters groundwork essential to true success. Thomas does prove himself to be a worthy hero on several occasions, but that’s not quite enough and there’s no clear view of what if any end game is in sight.

With one more of James Dashner’s books still to be filmed, let’s hope they wrap the trilogy up in a stronger manner than has been teased with this middle chapter.

 

LEGEND (18, 131 mins)

Director: Brian Helgeland

3 stars

Notorious London gangsters the Krays get another thumping biographical dramatisation of their exploits in this altogether slicker affair than 1990 effort The Krays.

The key selling point is an astonishing double performance from Tom Hardy as both Ron and Reg which goes a long way towards covering up some of its shortcomings.

The twin brothers are already renowned criminals as we join them in their 60s heyday on the heavily romanticised East End streets where they ply their trade, Reg as the level headed businessman to Ron's psycho.

They're well sketched characters with Reg preferring to view himself as a club owner rather than a gangster, though certainly not averse to knocking heads together when required.

At its core is a bond of fraternal loyalty that prevents him from cutting loose the unhinged Ron and this carries weight against the much too intrusive voiceover and on the nose music cues from a director who obviously knows his Goodfellas. It's at its best when showing the big and brassy face of gangsterism as they consolidate their empire, and although a lot of the content is surface gloss, it's also able to get under the skin of both men.

A look from Ron can chill the blood, but the violence bubbling under the composed Reg is to be equally feared and Hardy has to be putting himself in awards contention with his two impressive displays.

Brutal and surprisingly funny, it favours irony over portentousness, and is sufficiently different from the earlier version to more than justify its existence.

IRRATIONAL MAN (12A, 95 mins)

Director: Woody Allen

3 stars

Woody Allen’s latest stars Joaquin Phoenix as a philosophy professor who takes up a new position at a university, arriving with a reputation and rumours of a dark past that instantly sets tongues wagging around the school.

Emma Stone's student pursues him but he resists and there’s a decent build up of anguished to-ing and fro-ing as they spend time together for a while until the plot kicks in.

When it does it’s somewhat random and out of the blue, an overheard conversation that leads to thoughts of murder that might be the thing to get Phoenix out of his funk.

Themes of chance and randomness hark back to Woody’s Match Point, as does the murder element, while it’s also peopled with characters who thrive in an environment of intellectualising and philosophical musings like much of his work.

Although it mercifully doesn’t get too bogged down in this or its characters’ cleverness, which it threatens at first, there’s not much variety and it can be a bit mechanical and not especially satisfying, but you can’t argue with the performances, with Stone in particular shining in her second Allen outing.