As a fan of The Maze Runner book series, I’ll admit that the first movie didn’t quite live up to its own potential. The basis was solid, as was the casting, but the plot took a nosedive about halfway through and never really seemed to recover. The Scorch Trials — the sequel to The Maze Runner and second in the trilogy — took the lackluster aspects of the first movie and eliminated them completely. Directed by Wes Ball and starring Dylan O’Brien and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, this movie hit the ground running and didn’t slow until the credits rolled.

Picking up right where The Maze Runner left off, the movie follows the main characters Thomas, Newt, Minho and Teresa, along with others, as they explore the post-apocalyptic world where a disease caused by sun flares runs rampant. Though the protagonists are immune to the disease, those that do have it slowly disintegrate into zombie-like creatures called “cranks.” Thomas and his crew go out into the crank-infested wasteland in search of a rebellious group called the Right Arm, hoping to escape the twisted government agency WCKD’s control and determine what they are hiding.

I settled into my seat expecting a mediocre, cliché sci-fi movie, but I was surprisingly, almost alarmingly, engaged from the opening scene. The action shots were seamless and easy to follow, while more emotional scenes were captured with an artistic attention to detail that is often overlooked in movies as big as this one. The menacing lighting set the tone for two hours of death, discovery and betrayal. And the audio engineering — holy cow was it fantastic. Both the effects and the soundtrack kept me on the edge of my seat, listening for each chord and footstep like my life depended on it.

No movie is without its weaknesses, however; the most glaring of which is Teresa, Thomas’ so-called “love interest” for the better part of the movie. She’s a completely flat character with no personality or redeeming qualities other than the fact that she knew Thomas before he lost his memory in the first movie, which could be an interesting plot point if she spoke more than one word per scene. Her character dynamic doesn’t lend itself to the action-packed storyline, and while that isn’t exactly a bad thing, Teresa is unlikeable enough that it becomes a problem. The entire movie generally lacks a lot of heavy plot, but Thomas’ character development alone, as well as the introduction of several new characters, makes up for the discrepancies.

Even with these shortcomings, The Scorch Trials gives a twist on the overused Hunger Games/Divergent genre, and delivers a movie with lots of action that doesn’t get downright boring after the first two explosions. I give The Scorch Trials an A- for a fresh take on a well-loved concept that stays true to the book and is an improvement on the first movie. It’s a sequel worthy of your attention, and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind zombies and a little blood.