Review of Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) by Paul F — 31 Jan 2018

One day, hopefully, young adult book adaptations will stop being made. It was fine when the first Hunger Games film came out in 2012. But then other films and film series like The Divergent Series, The Giver, The Mortal Instruments, and now the Maze Runner trilogy. Now, the idea has run stale, and I tend to roll my eyes towards any new YA novel adaptation that hit the theaters. Somehow, I managed to get roped into seeing the final installment of the Maze Runner trilogy, The Death Cure, which wraps up the story told by the previous two. Before I begin, I will give full disclosure to anybody who is reading: I have ONLY seen the first film in the series (The Maze Runner), and I never saw the second out of a lack of interest. So, some of my judgment on the film could be skewed, and I will do my best to review it as a film rather than as a third installment in a franchise.

The Death Cure tells the story of a group of teenagers who escaped the Maze in the franchise's first feature film, and it focuses on their battle against WCKD, an organization attempting to find a cure to a disease called the Flare that is ravaging what is left of humanity. The film features many of the same characters from its predecessors. We have, of course, Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, the leader of this group of people (most of whom are immune to the Flare), Thomas Sangster as his best friend Newt, Kaya Scodelario as Teresa, Ki Hong Lee as another one of Thomas' friends Minho, and a variety of other actors that portray less important characters. This brings me to my first problem with The Death Cure: its reliance on previous films to make the audience care for the characters. The only characters I ever felt for were Thomas and Newt, and this was primarily due to their friendship, one of the few things that carried the film. There was one other character in the film (whose identity will remain secret due to its potential to spoil things for Maze Runner fans) who I also really liked, but this was solely due to the talented actor who played the character. Aside from those three characters, I never really cared about anybody else... the villain(s) were derivative and had unclear/boring motivations, the supporting protagonists never did anything more than support the main protagonists, and everybody else was very forgettable.

The Death Cure never tries to be more than it is marketed as: a pretty-looking action movie. And this is both a good and bad thing for its viewers. If you come into the film expecting that, you're going to get what you bargained for. It's entertaining without a doubt, and there are plenty of big-budget action stunts, explosions, and intense shootouts like you would expect. However, there are plenty of problems sprinkled into this mix. First of all, the amount of deus ex machina in the film was infuriating. This led the film to be predictable throughout and boring at times. Second of all, the film is long, far too long for a movie of this caliber. Third of all, lots of the writing and screenplay was messy. And finally, I'd like to point out that the WCKD troops in the film have aim that is even worse than the aim of Stormtroopers, which is saying something.

In the end, The Death Cure is a forgettable final installment in a forgettable Young Adult film series. It has some merits, but those merits are bogged down by an abundance of problems and the fact that the movie is hard to appreciate without having seen its predecessors. If you were a fan of the first two Maze Runner films, I think you will enjoy this one. Otherwise, I would suggest sitting this one out. There are other films in theaters at the moment that would be more worth your (and my) time. Maze Runner: The Death Cure gets 2 out of 5 stars.