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Parents' Guide to

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Dystopian sequel has lots of thrills, violence.

Movie PG-13 2015 131 minutes
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 40 parent reviews

age 16+

Not for kids

I was really surprised and annoyed at the level of violence, horrible zombie creatures and sexual themes. Definitely nothing like the first movie. I would probably not even let my 16 year old watch this. I stopped this movie because I didn't think it was right for my kids to see this. The first movie was scary but not to this extreme. Really disappointed in the lack of rating Disney put on it.
age 16+

Great movie!

My husband and I really enjoyed this movie! I think it’s the best one out of the series; HOWEVER, we are pretty reserved when it comes to sexual content in movies and unfortunately when I looked into this movie there wasn’t any mention of what the females were actually wearing in the club scene. Most women were dressed very inappropriately. Within the first 5 seconds of Thomas entering the club you see multiple women in their bra. I’m not sure why this was never mentioned in any of the other reviews but it would have been nice to know before watching the movie. We had to skip through the whole scene which lasts about 2-3 minutes.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (40 ):
Kids say (148 ):

As Thomas, O'Brien is once again charming and determined in this faithful, action-packed sequel to The Maze Runner. The plot and character development aren't quite as compelling as they were in the first movie (the set up of waking up and having no idea why you're stuck somewhere is usually inherently fascinating), but that's to be expected of a story where the main characters are mostly on the run. There isn't much time in between fighting off men with guns and zombie-like Cranks to explore the inner workings of how these characters are feeling. But there are a couple of sweet contemplative conversations between Thomas and his crew, as well as between Thomas and his new friend, Brenda, ably played by Salazar as a brave girl who's a good shot but is also vulnerable.

Unfortunately, with the introduction of new characters like Rosa and Jorge, there isn't as much focus on fan favorites Newt and Minho, and poor Theresa is reduced to a stereotype of the sad girl with secrets. Although the pulse-quickening action sequences are still well executed (and, in a couple of cases, downright anxiety-provoking), it's really the characters that made the first movie so enjoyable, and while this interim installment provides just enough intrigue and twists to make fans happy, it also starts to seem a bit too much like every other teen dystopian movie. Even the tension between Thomas and the ruthless WCKD chancellor, played with icy gusto by Patricia Clarkson, feels straight out of the Katniss-vs.-President Snow or Tris-vs.-Jeanine Matthews playbook.

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