'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' A Review

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is a dystopian action movie the third and final installment in this YA adaptation. The movie opens on Thomas(Dylan O'Brien), Newt(Thomas Brodie-Sangster), and Frypan(Dexter Darden) orchestrating along with Brenda(Rosa Salazar) and Jorge(Giancarlo Esposito) a rescue of their friend Minho(Ki Hong Lee) from evil entity WCKD. The rescue attempt fails and Thomas and his crew head into the last city, WCKD's stronghold, in order to save their friend as he as slowly tortured for a cure to the deadly Flare Virus.

The acting is all decent but the story doesn't ask much of the cast to do beyond the psychical and brief exclamations. There are numerous cries of "Get down!" "Duck!" and "Hold on!" Esposito is the only one who's able to create a style or POV from a script which pays much thought to action and little to character. The other interesting turn is from Walton Goggins who has a brief but exciting cameo. The rest of the performances are all functional, serving the action and the propulsion of the plot, with only the most cursory reference or examination of emotion. As practical as that sounds it mostly works.

There is no doubt The Death Cure is derivative. With clear inspirations of better YA series like The Hunger Games as well as more innovative dystopian fare like Mad Max: Fury Road and Terminator 2 there is nothing terribly original about the story. However, the action is exciting, the story moves fast, and the almost exclusive use of practical effects creates a more visceral and immersive experience than this long delayed third installment in the half forgotten Maze Runner series warrants.

A fun piece of entertainment, good counterprogramming for these two months of holdover Oscar hopefuls.

Rent It.