The Scorch Trials (2015) review

The Scorch Trials is the sequel of The Maze Runner trilogy. It still follows the journey of Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow ex-gladers after they left the Maze. 

Please note that I haven't read the novels, so everything written here is based on my opinion about the movie only. (Although tbh I read the book plot on Wiki and it looks quite different from the movie??? Idk)

---SPOILER ALERT---

Sooo, I missed the first 10 minutes or so of this movie, sadly, so I'm kinda lost on how this movie started. When we last left The Maze Runner, Thomas and some other gladers were being rescued from the WICKED facility after they escaped the Maze. Skip to the part when I start watching, Thomas and the others except Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) were in a some sort of a facility with a bunch of other kids, and this guy,

Yes. Janson (Aidan Gillen) a.k.a Littlefinger from Game Of Thrones. He is the one in charge there and it seems that Thomas doesn't like him (not that I would blame Thomas bcs look at his smug face). Long story short, Thomas finds out about the bad things going on in that facility and manages to convince his group to leave the place. 

Now, this trilogy is called The Maze Runner, so of course it involves a lot of running. Like, almost half of the movie is spent with these guys running away from something. Even just watching them is exhausting enough for me. Also, Thomas has this tendency to be very "explosive" and he kinda likes to run through a very limited space gap, like, why you gotta make your life harder than it already is, bruh???

So they run away, against sand storm, a seemingly never ending desert, lightning storm, WICKED soldiers, ruined city, another group of survivors with questionable motive, and last but not least, zombie-like creatures which are actually the victims of flare disease, also they can run and climb quickly just like the zombies from World War Z. That last thing genuinely surprised me bcs I did not expect in the slightest that the flare victims will be depicted like zombies but it totally adds to the element of surprise and suspense of this movie so, well done.

A few other surprises including the fact that Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) the doctor and the head of this trial program in WICKED is still alive and still a boss, there are new cool characters, like Brenda (Rosa Salazar) a bad ass girl with guns, a group of army called Right Arm who is against WICKED and audiences are given a short story about Thomas' history before his memory was wiped. It didn't explain everything, but it gave us an idea about WICKED and Thomas and how they're related and what happened in general.

Oh and Teresa kinda betrays them, so, yeah. 

---SPOILER ENDS---

A few thoughts about The Scorch Trials:

• Minho (Ki Hong Lee) definitely went through a lot. He knee-bashed a WICKED soldier, got struck by lightning, and finally got electrocuted and caught by WICKED :( Poor Minho. And this is a personal opinion but I like his character a lot more than hot-headed Thomas. 

• There're excessive usage of "Go!" "Let's go!!" and "Come on!" all throughout the movie. Too much, perhaps.

• I like how the lighting works in The Scorch Trials. It works really well in the bright scenes, and equally nice in the dark scenes

• Something that bugs me a little is the plotline, actually. Like, it moves fast, lots of stuff happen at the same time and yet, it feels like nothing is accomplished. At the end, Thomas and the gang decides to go back and fight WICKED and it feels like they're going back to square one. Unlike, say, in The Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss' main goal is to bring down President Snow, and in each installment, there's a progress in the plot. But The Scorch Trials, it's just missing something and I can't really put my fingers on what it is actually 

I give The Scorch Trials 3.5/5 noise. It's action-packed, intense and shocking at times, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat, and it's definitely enjoyable. However, if we compare it to similar YA fiction movies, I'm not sure The Scorch Trials will be that memorable after a while.