Thursday, February 1, 2018

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

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.”