The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (Review)
INTRO: If you haven't seen the trailer click here or here.
After the last movie left off on such a cliffhanger, I think this sequel was highly anticipated. I was certainly so excited and I wasn't disappointed. The Maze Runner left off with the survivors being supposedly rescued by a rival group of WCKD (wicked) and thrown onto a helicopter. Everyone was left screaming ‘NO!’ but alas, that was where it ended.
Coming out of the cinema I felt it was amazing but reflecting back, compared to the first movie that was always on the go, I guess it was a slow point in the trilogy. In a way, they had to set the background for the next movie and explain how they got to that stage. I think the third will be the most action packed. It's yet to be announced it is being split so I only hope it will not be.
I was really impressed by the effects. Both the scientific special effects and all the zombie effects were sublime. The chases with the zombies were sublime especially the one falling through the glass window (seen in the trailer).
As expected, the movie begins as the helicopter lands. Again, the teenagers are yanked about and dragged to a door while men in full guard suits are firing into a fast approaching zombie army, which we learn are called ‘Cranks’.
The camera flies through the entry and lands them in a clinical area. After running medical examinations and taking vial after vial of blood, the escapees are lead into a canteen area where many other teens await. We quickly learn that there were other mazes and similarly, escapees. I think this only leads to more questions: why did they all escape at the exact same time?
Each day, survivors are called out and taken to a ‘paradise’ that is free from the virus. Thomas, being as inquisitive as ever, instantly finds a connection, a friendship, in a boy called Aris. Aris is a quiet boy who sits alone in the back of the room as the oldest member of the little camp of survivors; he is the equivalent of Teresa in the fact he was the only one of his gender in the maze.
Together they crawl through air vents and discover that the people whom they thought were saving their lives are actually slowly draining them of their precious fluids. They are immune to the virus, ‘The Flare’ which almost wiped out humane society, and their fluid is needed for the protection of the rest of the world.
As trusting as ever, Thomas’ friends follow him as he leads them into a firing squad before escaping the facility, leaving so many others behind. They escape into a sand storm and into the scorch.
Here we learn why it’s called ‘The Scorch Trials’. All that’s left of the world after the fires appears to be a barren and inhospitable desert wasteland. The trials aspect is because they have to overcome all these challenges and obstacles in their way to reach their destination.
As they trek over sand dunes, they hope to find the ‘Right Arm’, an army that will rescue them, provide refuge and actually take them to the paradise. Despite it being abandoned, they get captured and freed, captured and freed and captured and freed multiple times.
They battle against the Cranks and there are definitely a lot of jumpy moments. I think the whole cinema jumped out of their seats when the zombie-like dead people keep coming at them. Once you think you've lost them, another group finds them. Although, I'll admit when they turned on the power and all the lights went on in the middle of the night was idiotic. I swear that happens in every scary movie and it's like 'You idiot!'. You want to scream and shake the person!
A story of true friendship, trust and sacrifice means that lives are lost. One of my favourite scenes is when one character is bitten and to stop himself being turned into a ‘Crank’ he asks the team to leave him and a gun. As they walk away, a gunshot rings out. A single line of silhouettes stand still and look back as the sun sets behind them. Serene.
Clearly, these teens know death and accept it rather than cry and grieve inconsolably. Maybe we can learn something from dystopia world’s like the Maze Runner Trilogy. Instead of crying, celebrate someone’s life and be thankful that their pain is over. Granted, not murderously killed but if they were suffering… I know I would rather end my life earlier than end it in monumental pain.
‘Sometimes living is a lot harder than dying.’
In a way, I thought the movie should have ended a few minutes earlier with so many of the people being taken, but Thomas’ ‘moving speech’ as the characters put it, provides hope for the future and the anti-climactic end is just as powerful.
As viewers, once again we await answers as to what will happen next. Frustratingly, the next instalment isn't set to be released until 2017. What will we do until then?! Re-read the books in the trilogy is my answer. Plus don't forget the two prequels that are either out or soon to come out.
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