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The tension and fresh ideas that made 2014\u2019s \u201cThe Maze Runner\u201d a nice surprise are completely ignored in the overly familiar and dramatically insincere \u201cThe Death Cure.\u201d A must for fans of the trilogy, the rest of us, who may barely remember the story elements, will struggle to stay engaged.<\/p>\n
Based on the James Dashner best-selling young adult novel, \u201cThe Death Cure\u201d follows the continuing adventures of Thomas (Dylan O\u2019Brien), who having survived the glade, the maze, and the scorch trials, now has to contend with the finding something called the death cure. Although it\u2019s hinted at, gone is the introspective, intelligent group dynamic that led to escape from the glade through the maze. Those somewhat fresh ideas have been replaced by a rather pedestrian post-apocalyptic story crossed with action sequences ripped directly from the \u201cFast and the Furious\u201d films.<\/p>\n
The movie opens with Thomas and his clan attempting to rescue others like them from a speeding train. Naturally, this means driving a truck up beside the train and then behind it and eventually boarding the locomotive. Although fairly well mounted, these sequences lack any real sense of danger, as not one opposing soldier seems to be able to shoot straight, and the tools required to pull off the job are readily available. Perhaps it\u2019s their prior training, but the script merely gives the characters skills when required and pulls these talents back when required. It\u2019s all a frustrating yoyo in fantasy land. If you\u2019re 12, maybe it works, but older viewers will scoff.<\/p>\n
While the rescue is largely successful, Thomas\u2019 good friend Minho (Ki Hong Lee) was left behind. Of course, Thomas decides to go back for him. And even though the risks are high, Thomas is joined by Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and others to do the impossible. The plot will be instantly recognizable. If revenge were involved, you\u2019d have \u201cWar for the Planet of the Apes,\u201d and if you didn\u2019t know what you were watching, you\u2019d swear this was an episode of \u201cThe Walking Dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zombies called Cranks are all over making the journey to rescue Minho perilous. But in time that part of the story-line is abandoned for another that involves a walled city run by an authoritarian group of militant incompetents. Haven\u2019t we seen something like this in one of the \u201cResident Evil\u201d entries? But this is where things get laughable. The city is led in part by Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkston) but controlled by a security professional named Janson (Aidan Gillen, Littlefinger from \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d).<\/p>\n
Ava is like an etherial presence who speaks in platitudes, while Janson growls and reaches for a gun as a solution. Their costuming alone is ridiculous. Ava is immaculate, dress in white outfits with not one hair out of place. Yes, they all live in a walled city in the middle of a wasteland, but somehow, Ava and others have stylish clothing made for them or, at least tailored to their exact specifications.<\/p>\n
Janson wears no symbols of authority, like a badge of some sort, and dresses in dark colors wearing a tight-fitting leather jacket. His constant sneer is like Littlefinger as he tries to manipulate the Stark girls. We know he was a fool then, and he\u2019s still a minor fool. The whole arrangement lacks credibility. Gillen\u2019s familiar mannerisms are so out of place in this film, it proves to be comically distracting. He\u2019s an actor who can bring something special to a role, but in this script, he\u2019s required to play Littlefinger with a gun. It isn\u2019t the least bit menacing.<\/p>\n
And Janson\u2019s soldiers inconsistently don ridiculous mesh helmets similar to those worn by a fencer. Like a poor-man\u2019s stormtrooper, these helmets appear to serve no practical purpose except to obstruct view making aiming a weapon impossible, and they provide the perfect means to surreptitiously infiltrate their ranks. And naturally, this is one way Thomas and the boys get in. Frankly, this level of foolishness should be reserved for a long form series on a lesser television platform. As a feature film, \u201cThe Death Cure\u201d is lacking almost everything that makes it theatrically worthy.<\/p>\n
And this is a pity given that director Wes Ball has directed each of the three \u201cMaze Runner\u201d episodes. One would think that he\u2019d understand how to pull the story together into a coherent three-part epic narrative. Instead, this film is so far removed from the way things started that even the characters are barely recognizable. The good news is that after \u201cThe Death Cure,\u201d I can\u2019t imagine another \u201cMaze Runner,\u201d therefore, Ball\u2019s obvious talent can be applied to another fantastic property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Death Cure\u201d ends \u201cThe Maze Runner\u201d franchise with a whimper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ending a franchise with a whimper\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5076,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions\/5076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}