[M.R] CHAPTER 1: Maze Runner Series

Hi, welcome to the new segment of this blog: 

MOVIES REVIEW 

CHAPTER I: MAZE RUNNER SERIES

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials poster

Maze Runner is a 2014 American dystopian science fiction film directed by Wes Ball, in his directorial debut, based on James Dashner's 2009 novel of the same name. The story follows sixteen-year-old Thomas, portrayed by O'Brien, who awakens in a rusty elevator with no memory of who he is, only to learn he's been delivered to the middle of an intricate maze, along with many other boys, who have been trying to find their way out of the ever-changing labyrinth – all while establishing a functioning society in what they call the Glade.

The Maze Runner was released on September 19, 2014 in the United States by 20th Century Fox. Critics considered it to be better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations. The film topped the box-office during its opening weekend with a $32.5 million debut, making it the seventh-highest grossing debut in September. 

There are 3 films in total: The Maze Runner, The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials which was released on September 18, 2015, and The Maze Runner: The Death Cure which was released on January 26, 2018. First movie earned over $348 million,$312.3 million for the second movie, and $288.2 million for the last movie. So they earned $948.5 million in total.

WCKD Base, Cape Town.

In the first movie, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), a teenager, arrives in a glade at the center of a giant labyrinth. Like the other youths dumped there before him, he has no memory of his previous life. Thomas quickly becomes part of the group and soon after demonstrates a unique perspective that scores him a promotion to Runner status -- those who patrol the always-changing maze to find an escape route. Together with Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), the only female, Thomas tries to convince his cohorts that he knows a way out.

In the Scorch Trials, Thomas and his fellow teenage Gladers (Newt, Minho, Frypan) find themselves in trouble after uncovering a diabolical plot from the mysterious and powerful organization WCKD after transported to a remote fortified outpost. With help from a new ally (Brenda and Jorge), the Gladers stage a daring escape into the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with dangerous obstacles and crawling with the virus-infected Cranks. The Gladers only hope may be to find the Right Hand, a group of resistance fighters who can help them battle WCKD.

In the last film, Thomas leads some escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions that the Gladers have been asking since they arrived in the maze.

The Maze Runner is one of the best movie I've ever seen. With a strong cast, numerous heart-in-mouth action moments, terrifying monster that familiar to zombie but called with another name (the monster called Cranks) and how Wes Ball made me entering the whole world of the film is just genius. There's lot of thing I could brag about how good, terrifying, and emotional the film is.

Thomas

Why do I love The Maze Runner? The main reason is this is science fiction film. It has less romance and has the dark and eerie mood. Despite how dark and eerie the mood is, The Maze Runner is adventurous and suspending. The plot is amazing, the character-development of each characters is amazing, and  how the background in this film brought me to a literally a whole different world is just fantastic. I even got the message from each movies. It's all about bravery and trust. You have to be extremely brave and fearless, like what Thomas, Newt, Minho, and the others do. They literally doesn't care about what will happen and just brave it out. The Maze Runner obviously tell us to face what is happening now and have to be ready to face whatever will come bravely and fearlessly.

Now, lets talk about where will the plot going in each movies. In the first movie: The Maze Runner is focused on how they they could do to left the maze, so it's mostly about growing the plot and building relationship among characters. The Scorch Trials mostly focused on their adventure and developing relationship among characters. The adventure of course is filled with love, deceit, and death. But the last film, The Death Cure has less developing relationship among characters and focused on death and destruction. 

(little spoiler: there are so many deaths and sad part in The Death Cure so I cried a lot)

But there's something I think weren't clear enough for the movie watchers only. One of them are how and when did Newt got infected by flare virus which is turned him to a cranks? It's ambiguous for me and many others so there's lot of theories about it. And it was also difficult to understand Thomas struggle between Teresa and Brenda at some point because it wasn't explored deeply both in the movie and the book. Well I know this film isn't about lovey-dovey stuff among characters but how Teresa and Brenda had a crush on Thomas and how Thomas is just loved Teresa is something I think needed to told or explored deeply to the movie watchers so it doesn't get ambiguous.  

Despite of the confusing part in The Maze Runner series, I still really love it and it will always be in the list of the 'Best Movies Raia's ever Seen'. 

At the end, The Maze Runner movie series is worth to watch and really thrilling!

QUOTES FROM NEWT: