The joys of being at home sick, yesterday I re-watched The Scorch Trials, I forgot how much I loved this movie. I liked The Maze Runner, as the first movie in the series it did a great job of introducing the characters but I enjoyed the second and third movies a little bit more. And that's more to do with the horror element that was added on.
What I love about The Scorch Trials is that it's part action, part horror and a whole lot of drama and suspense. The group (Thomas, Frypan, Minho, Newt, Teresa and Winston) go from getting out of the maze to heading to a facility with their rescuers. However, everything felt like it was too good to be true and Thomas was having a hard time trusting that they were really safe from WCKD. Thanks to this slightly weird kid Aris, Thomas found out the truth which had the group needing to make a quick escape but they also needed to find Teresa who was somewhere in the medical ward. But Mr. Jansen wasn't just going to let them go, not with Ava Paige (Director of WCKD) having big plans for all the kids held at the facility.
Okay, after this additional viewing, I will admit Thomas really didn't seem to have a plan once they escaped. He was mainly desperate for them to get away from WCKD but he did have a rough sort of idea for the group to get to the mountains because that's where he believed a fringe resistance group The Right Arm were. I couldn't help laughing at Newt's reaction to the plan, he couldn't believe they were looking for mountain people. So the group now with Aris were trekking through the desert and found an abandon facility where they were able to stock up on resources (like clothes and water). Turns out they were in an abandoned mall but Thomas and Minho's curiosity and trying to turn on the power had the group running from zombies (or cranks in the Maze Runner world) and leaving poor Winston being attacked.
Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be an easy task to make it to the mountains even more so with Winston suffering from his wounds. Plain and simple, he wasn't going to make it. But he made the difficult call for them to leave him but he made and even more difficult decision to end his life. He didn't want to turn into one of those creatures especially with the virus quickly running through his body. It was only going to be a matter of time before he turned. I thought the scene afterwards was so heartbreaking because they were so sad as they dealt with what happened to Winston. The reality of being out in the harsh (and very destroyed) world had Frypan missing the maze but I would rather be out there than trapped in a WCKD testing facility.
A turning point for the now tired and thirsty group happened when they met Jorge and Brenda. But a betrayal from someone in Jorge's group had Thomas and his friends yet again having to escape from WCKD. I forgot how much I loved all the scenes with Thomas and Brenda, they have a really interesting chemistry. You really saw it during the scenes they got separated from the group, then having to run from cranks (with Brenda getting bitten) and dealing with being drugged at a club. Those two went through a lot before they were reunited with the group and it seemed like something was growing between them.
I think the ultimate betrayal in this movie came from Teresa. After the group finally found The Right Arm, they thought they were going to be safe, everyone was so happy. I really like the scene in the tent between Thomas and Brenda after she received a treatment for her crank bite. It was a real bonding moment between them. But Teresa had to contact WCKD and ruin everything. I tried to see it from her point of view but it's hard to see what she did as a good thing. If she wanted to go back to WCKD she should have made the decision to slipped away from the group and contacted the organization for them to pick her up. Her rash decision didn't benefit anyone but it did result in people being killed, captured and later on tortured (in the third movie). You could tell she couldn't understand why Thomas, Minho, Frypan, Newt and all the others would rather fight than have to be forced to go back to WCKD. To her WCKD was good, she saw the potential good the organization could be by denying all the horrible things they actually were doing in their efforts to find a cure.
As for the third movie, I had hoped that things would further develop between Brenda and Thomas in The Death Cure. There were looks between them and a hug but I was disappointed that the movie decided to focus on a romance between Thomas and Teresa. I can see maybe forgiving her for betraying them but it's hard to see Thomas harboring any romantic feelings towards her. That kiss between them didn't make any sense, I thought Teresa and Thomas had zero romantic chemistry but I guess that was what TDC was going with. I don't know maybe this story line of Thomas liking Teresa is in the books and there is actually no romance between Brenda and Thomas which is a shame because I thought there was chemistry between them in The Scorch Trials movie. Maybe when I finally read the books I will know.
I know The Scorch Trials movie had mixed reviews from fans but I really liked it. It's a sci-fi horror action adventure set in a dystopian world that has a plot filled with many twist and a few scares. And because I have not seen this movie in a while, it was great re-watching it. Now, I have to wait until the end of the month for The Death Cure to be released on DVD/Blu-ray so I can re-watch it.
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