Review of Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) by Connor S — 30 Jan 2018

Disclaimer: I have never read a Maze Runner book, nor have I seen any of the other movies. Although I didn't have any trouble understanding what was going on, I didn't really enjoy this movie. My not having seen any of the others might be the reason why.

The Death Cure intends to be the explosive finale to the series, and for some parts, it succeeds. The opening is a reasonably strong action sequence, and the climax is replete with explosions, chaos, and high stakes. Everything between that, however, is devoid of tension. Again, I probably didn't feel invested in the movie because I lack the experience with this series, but there are real film-making flaws behind this. The main characters can only whip up so many last-moment rescues before their predicaments stop being suspenseful. Instead, what's supposed to keep us invested are excessive explosions, unnecessary blue and orange color corrections, and almost exclusively handheld filming. The cinematography isn't exactly an egregious shaky cam, but depicting chaos through seemingly uncontrollable camera movements tends to be more disorienting than anything else.

Even the stronger parts of the narrative aren't especially standout, though. Maze Runner borrows heavily from other post-apocalypse classics, like Mad Max, Stephen King's The Stand, and every zombie movie ever made, and even other cinematic greats like A New Hope, but it never recreates what makes those stories great. It occasionally delves into the characters, but it never considers the broader implications of the narrative's events. The villains' name is pronounced "wicked," but The Death Cure barely bothers to show why we should root against them. No doubt it figures whatever WCKD did in the previous installments is enough to make us hate them. One last complaint: none of the actors can agree on how to pronounce Min Ho's name. Keep in mind I'm not the most knowledgeable about Maze Runner, but I'm at least confident it isn't the best YA adaptation out there.