![]() If Maze Runner's first entry was about Thomas carving out his identity as a leader, and the second about learning how to lead, this third, once again directed by Wes Ball, is his chance to finally make a stand and lead.įans of James Dashner's books will recognize how this fight has to end: Thomas confronting Janson, the true villain, whose interests were never about curing the disease that wiped out large swaths of humanity but about sustaining his own life. These trials, as they always have, double as life lessons for Thomas and his love interest Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), and although the movies have sometimes felt like all of Hollywood stuffed into a blender (wastelands, zombies, firefights, oh my!), the story has always been a coming-of-age journey at heart. He does, to be sure, but only after a marathon of action: a showdown with those nasty zombie-like Cranks in a tortuous tunnel, a peaceful protest-turned-explosive nightmare, a jailbreak gone horribly awry, a race to escape the inferno that becomes the Last City. That means Thomas needs to infiltrate the so-called "Last City," to save his friend and finally stop his longtime foes Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and Rat Man Janson ( Game of Thrones' Aidan Gillen). Unfortunately, the nail-biter of an opener is only a partial success, with many Immunes freed but MVP Minho ultimately left on the train. The opening scene, like much of the movie, thrums with the kind of anxious energy that makes you feel like you’re watching Mad Max: Fury Road Jr. Here, Thomas (O'Brien), Brenda (Rosa Salazar), and the gang look like a competent tactical unit. Gone are the scrappy rebels we saw in the first two movies. ![]() The objective: free Minho (Ki Hong Lee), who was captured along with other Immunes by the radical org WCKD, at the end of 2015's Scorch Trials. The Death Cure picks up in the middle of a train heist. Nowlin, even with the changes made to the ending of the original trilogy. A definitive end, according to series screenwriter T.S. Like its predecessors, the movie is relentlessly ambitious, both in story and visuals, and while it's at times exhausting, it's a burst of undeniable fun that brings Hollywood's current Y.A. (It's in the name, after all.) But Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the latest installment in the popular books-turned-movies franchise, turns the young hero around and sends him straight to his enemies' doorstep. But by losing the worst plot elements (psychic links, your time is up), making it look great and focusing on the action, Ball and team have made this better than we had any right to expect.Major spoilers from the Maze Runner franchise follow.Įver since the first Maze Runner movie premiered in 2014, that's basically all Dylan O'Brien's character has done. Given that unpromising source book, and following a delay of well over a year to allow O’Brien to recuperate from a serious injury sustained on set (thankfully he seems fully recovered), you might have expected for this series to fade out the way the Divergent sequels did. Still, it’s stylishly shot, and sufficiently well cast to carry a little emotion. With lots of loose plot-threads still to be tied up - notably the story of their own personal Judas, Teresa ( Kaya Scodelario) - even an edited version takes two hours to tell, and it’s hard to sustain tension or scares for that long. Admittedly some of the action can’t help but feel familiar: it’s a mission to get into a heavily guarded place, and then get out while occasionally outrunning monsters. ![]() This one keeps up the pace but becomes more of a running battle, one so well designed it suggests a much bigger budget than this can possibly have had. ![]() Nowlin stripping the narrative to the bone. The first and second films were one long chase scene, with director Wes Ball and screenwriter T.S. So it’s off through the Flare-zombie infested wilderness to the Last City, a WCKD-controlled stronghold that may hold the key to saving the world, if they can get in and out alive. That goes largely to plan, but some of their friends, immune to the Flare plague that has devastated the population, are left still in the hands of the all-powerful WCKD organisation, which is alas not a company dedicated to alco-pops. No time for introductions! All six are engaged in a daring train heist (because you can’t go wrong if you stick close to Fast Five) in order to free the captured Minho (Ki Hong Lee). You’ll have to gradually piece together that Thomas ( Dylan O’Brien) and his friends Newt ( Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Frypan (Dexter Darden) have survived the Maze, and teamed up with black marketeer Jorge ( Giancarlo Esposito), his ward Brenda (Rosa Salazar) and freedom fighter Vince (Barry Pepper). There isn’t even an opening title card or voiceover to remind you who’s who, what’s what or how we got to this point as we rejoin the action. ![]()
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