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Cinemaholics Review: Maze Runner: The Death Cure and Hostiles

death cure

I’m not entirely sure why I care so much about the Maze Runner series at this point, now finishing with The Death Cure. I enjoyed the first film and even the second one to an extent (silliness and all). But it’s been nearly three years and I’m struggling to figure out if there’s much of a fan base left after all this time.

If there is, then this latest episode of Cinemaholics will do you good. If you couldn’t care less, that’s also fine. We also took a look at some other noteworthy releases. There’s Hostiles, a new western starring Christian Bale. Black Lightning, the new CW superhero show. Please Stand By, a new indie film that just hit VOD. A Futile and Stupid Gesture, a new original Netflix film about the making of National Lampoon. And The Breadwinner, which was just nominated for Best Animated Feature by the Academy Awards.

Go on…Cinemaholics Review: Maze Runner: The Death Cure and Hostiles

First Walking Dead Season 5 Poster Can Be Summed Up In One Word: Survive

Literally.

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Let’s over-analyze! (Spoilers from season 4 ahead obviously)

It looks like Rick is wearing the same clothes from when we last left him and the rest of the Unbitten (my nickname for the core cast). In the last few moments of the finale, Rick, Carl, Michonne, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, and the new B season characters were captured by the sinister humans running Terminus. They were stashed in a boxcar moments before the season faded to black.

From the look of things, they won’t be in that boxcar for long, as we can see Rick apparently hanging out either underground or in a seriously poor-lit building. The Unbitten seriously have their work cut out for them this season against the villains behind Terminus, who appear to be cannibals (if this is untrue and you know because of the comics, please let us find out for ourselves on our own please thanks!). 

If you recall, there were empty boxes of powdered milk sitting in front of the prison boxcar, hinting that they are the source of nutrition for Terminus’ prisoners. My guess is that they want to kill each person quickly, before they turn, and when they are fit and healthy enough to be sufficient meals. In other words, they have to fatten ’em up.

Additionally, we saw glimpses of cages filled with bones and entrails while the Unbitten were trying to escape the facility. In the words of Cleveland Brown, that’s nasty.

Disgusting and demented, I know, but we are dealing with the desperation of humanity here. With not enough food and shelter to go around, we had to come across this kind of apocalyptic utilitarianism eventually.

Personally, I’m ready to continue seeing Rick unleashed. He’s broken away from his role as the “farmer” and has been ruthless lately, which culminated in his drastic biting off of Joe’s neck in the season finale. Who even saw that coming?

The theme is survive, which has always been at the center of this show, but this season, it will ring truer than ever before. The first season was mostly about Rick finding his family, the second season was about finding a place to survive, the third season was about fighting for the place they found, and season 4 was about building (and ultimately losing) that place into something reminiscent of the life the Unbitten had before.

But season 5? At this point, survival will truly be everything.

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