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Movie Review: “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” Successfully Closes Out The Saga

[yasr_overall_rating]
 

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.

I knew nothing about the ‘The Maze Runner’ books until the first film adaptation was released in 2014. The trailers were intriguing, to say the least, and when I finally watched “The Maze Runner,” starring Dylan O’Brien, I fell in love with it. Watching a group of young people try to navigate a dangerous and deadly maze was fascinating and by the end of the first movie, you were left with the realization that this was only the beginning and that the maze itself, was just a starting point.

In September of 2015, the sequel, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” was released and I personally enjoyed that film much more than the first one. We got to explore many of the characters and discovered more about their backstories and of course, the finale was a cliffhanger that is finally resolved in the third and final entry in the series, “Maze Runner: The Death Cure.”

When we last saw Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) at the end of “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials,” he had just been betrayed by Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who called WCKD, the company responsible for creating the maze, and informed them of her location. Believing their intentions to be honorable, she went along with them, as well as innocent survivors that were captured, including their friend Minho (Ki Hong Lee) with the intent of experimenting on them to try and find a cure for a deadly virus called the Flare, which has zombified most of the world’s population. They make their way back to the “Last City,” where WCKD is headquartered and Thomas and his friends set out to save Minho.

After a daring train rescue in which many of the young survivors, on their way to Last City, have been extracted and brought to safety, Thomas discovers, after the fact, that Minho was not actually on board the train and is, in fact, already at WCKD’s headquarters in the Last City being experimented on. Vince (Barry Pepper), the leader of The Right Arm resistance, is planning on moving the remaining survivors to a distant location far away from their present whereabouts but Thomas insists that they go to the city to rescue Minho. With so many of their people already dead, Vince states that he cannot allow any more of them to be sacrificed in order to save one man and Thomas reluctantly agrees. Later that night, however, he sneaks out in a Jeep and heads to the city himself. Naturally, his best friends Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Frypan (Dexter Darden) are waiting for him before he leaves and the trio head off to the city to save Minho.

Once there though, they realize that getting inside the city’s large impenetrable walls is going to be more difficult than they originally thought but they find help in an old face long thought dead, Gally (Will Poulter). He leads them to Lawrence (Walton Goggins), a rebellion leader for the infected, who knows of a secret passage that will take them under the walls and into the city. He proceeds to tell them that that is the easy part, getting into WCKD’s headquarters is going to be almost impossible. Thomas says he has a plan and once they make their way inside, they kidnap Teresa and dress up as WCKD security guards and force her back into the building where they rescue Minho but they quickly realize that their problems are only beginning. After Lawrence manages to successfully blow a hole in the wall, with time running out, and the infected making their way inside the city’s walls, Teresa tells Thomas that as someone who is immune to the virus, his blood will be able to stop it from spreading and save those already infected but he is very skeptical of her plan, especially since she double-crossed him once before. With time running out, he must make a final decision, save his friends, or save all of mankind.

“Maze Runner: The Death Cure” is a wild ride filled with spectacular action setpieces and visually stunning CGI and while it wraps up the series satisfyingly, at almost two and a half hours long, there are moments where you feel the time drag by. The film is solid and the acting is strong but at least 30 minutes could have been excised and would have made for a much stronger narrative. Director Wes Ball, who helmed the previous two installments, returns for the final chapter but he borrows heavily from the Peter Jackson School of Filmmaking, lingering in slow motion on dying friends as the background is filled with explosions, and once they pass, everyone else just stands over them, as the music swells and the camera tracks back from the action. With zombies everywhere, our protagonists don’t seem too bothered by them and the zombies themselves are nice enough to allow them time to grieve. All in all, for fans of the series, it is neatly wrapped up by the end and thankfully doesn’t appear to leave the door ajar for any further adventures.

In theaters January 26th

 

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James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic and Celebrity Interviewer with over 30 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker.