DIRECTOR: Wes
Ball LEAD CAST: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scoldelario, Ki Hong Lee,
Will Poulter, Ami, Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Blake Cooper, Jacob Latimore,
Dexter Darden, Rosa Salazar, Patricia Clarkson & Giancarlo Esposito SCREENWRITER: T.S. Nowlin PRODUCER:
Wyck Godfrey EDITOR: Dan
Zimmerman MUSICAL DIRECTOR: John Paesano
GENRE: Action/Sci-Fi CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gyula Pados
DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox
LOCATION: South Africa RUNNING
TIME: 152 minutes
Technical assessment: 3
Moral
assessment: 3
CINEMA rating: V14
Staging a daring train
rescue operation, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and companions Newt (Thomas
Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden), Brenda (Rosa Salazar), and Jorge
(Giancarlo Esposito), brave death to free young people from becoming guinea
pigs in the organization WCKD’s experiments to find a cure against the Flare
virus. They discover, however, that
their fellow “Glader” Minho (Ki Hong Lee) is not among those they have
rescued. Feeling certain that Minho has
been taken by WCKD—led by Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and her sinister right
hand Janson (Aiden Guillen)—Thomas decides to leave their base camp and go on
his own to search for Minho. Newt and
Frypan join him; soon they encounter Gally (Will Poulter) whom they had thought
to be dead, but who helps them enter the Last City. Gally tells Thomas’ that his love interest
Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) is now one of the WCKD scientists; captured, Teresa
reveals to them that Minho is indeed being used in WCKD’s experimental search
for the “death cure.”
Based on James
Dashner’s novel The Death Cure the
movie—the conclusion of the Maze Runner
trilogy—features heart pumping chase scenes that almost never stop—whether the
chaser is a giant beetle, the zombified characters called Cranks, or the enemy’s
flying machine guns and foot patrol.
Acting and characterization are adequate, with the exception of
Scodelario’s somewhat robotic Teresa. Janson
(Guillen, Game of Thrones’ Little
Finger) should have been given more screen time to show bigger and meaner fangs
as the villain. Throughout the dystopian
milieu, the characters project flashes of vulnerability, justifying the plot’s
twists and turns. However, (spoiler
alert!) the too frequent resorting to deus
ex machina as a salvation device diminishes the story’s credibility and realism.
Maze
Runner: The Death Cure’s
redeeming factor is the innate goodness of the young people in the story. The greater good is the glue that binds all
those young people together in spite of past offenses and misgivings. Friendship, forgiveness, loyalty to ideals,
repentance, and courage in the face of danger are values highlighted in the
film. Aristotle once wrote, “He is courageous who endures and fears the
right thing, for the right motive, in the right way and at the right times.” It is the kind of courage that the characters
displayed here, and the script is clear enough about how evil deeds are dealt
with in due time. The ending implies
that it is these young people who will populate the earth anew, inspiring one
to hope they will create “a new heaven and a new earth.”
