Maze Runner: The Death Cure - Film Review
*DISCLAIMER* - I have not read the books.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure is the third and final movie in the Maze Runner franchise, and sees our protagonists attempt to retrieve their friend from Wicked, an evil organisation established in the previous films, as well as destroy them. The Death Cure definitely has some fun to be had, particularly with its action and zombie apocalypse themes, but overall narratively and structurally it's a bit of a mess and rarely shows justification within the characters choices.
Actions and choices made by the characters feel entirely plot driven, and character motivations only serve the already clumsy plot. They only do what the story needs them to do in order to get them from point A to point B. Obviously exposition needs to be had in films, but many times in this film exposition is literally handed to the audience on a platter with a note telling us what's happening. This often breaks immersion from the film, and comes off as lazy storytelling.
Too many times in the film a coincidence happens where a character pops up out of nowhere to save our protagonists in danger, with no explanation given. In this case, there may not need to be any exposition, but this happens far to much in the film to the point of purely getting the characters out of danger to propel the plot along; this breaks all tension from the moment and it never feels that our heroes are in danger. The action scenes in this film are actually rather well executed and well directed, especially a lot of the fist-to-fist fight scenes. The acting is also top notch across the board, though dialogue at times can feel stilted.
That being said, I did have a decent enough time with The Death Cure to where I did enjoy myself, however, narratively, structurally, and character based this film drops the ball. If you did enjoy the last two films, you'll probably really like this one but if the other two weren't for you, i would skip The Death Cure.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure gets a 54%
