Maze Runner fans, prepare to be disappointed. The latest release in the Maze Runner cinematic trilogy was not impressive.
In the Maze Runner series, a group of people are trapped in an enormous maze and are tasked with the challenge of getting out. The main protagonist, Thomas, is put in the maze and soon falls in love with a fellow runner, Teresa. As the series progresses, the runners, known as Gladers, eventually make it out of the maze, but Teresa learns of a disease that is wiping out the human race which makes her decide to betray the Gladers in order to find a cure. The Gladers, which we learn are immune, are being hunted down by an organization called the “World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department” (abbreviated as WCKD) in order to find a cure for the disease.
In Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Thomas and the Gladers try to break into the Last City, WCKD’s base of operations, in order to rescue one of their captured friends, Minho. While trying to get their friend back, Thomas and the Gladers discover secrets and mysteries about themselves and who they truly are while also confronting Teresa.
The plot of the movie wasn’t very impressive. In many cases, Thomas and the Gladers would be put in a tough situation where one of them were going to die or possibly be captured, but, right before disaster strikes, a miracle happens and the group manages to get away, every single time. Although it’s somewhat expected that all the main characters won’t die, we thought that there’d be more conflict and actions that put the protagonist in a tougher spot.The movie’s generic dystopian plot felt like a clone of the famous Hunger Games series.
Thomas’s love for Teresa is also shown in the movie and we learn that Teresa isn’t all bad. Although she certainly did betray the Gladers and left them in a tough spot, she was simply trying to find a cure for the disease in order to save humanity.
The aesthetics of The Death Cure are definitely what brings the movie from total trash to mildly mediocre. Although the composition and set design of each scene was not perfect, the costume design and settings at least added some sort of flavor to the movie. The contrast between the atmosphere of the infected and uninfected zones helped create a physical and symbolic boundary between the two. What separates this movie from being another Hunger Games clone is that many of the scenes were filled with vibrant colors and natural backgrounds rather than the same gray, dystopian color scheme. The movie does particularly well with the dusty, cowboy-esque train raid scene, especially because they filmed the scene in Cape Town, Africa.
The acting throughout the movie wasn’t amazing but wasn’t terrible either. Earlier on in the movie, it felt like there wasn’t enough emotion in the characters. When the characters talked, it sounded like they didn’t truly mean it. The actions that they took felt fake and could have definitely been better. Although, we have to give them props as the main actors in the movie were pretty young compared to other movies of the same genre. We particularly felt that Janson and Minho, who were played by Aidan Gillen and Ki Hong Lee respectively, really played their roles well. In a particular scene where Minho and Teresa are talking one on one, Minho lashes out at Teresa for being a traitor and threatens to kill her. We felt like the acting in this scene was extremely well done as it truly looked like Minho was really going to kill Teresa.
Aidan Gillen’s character, the desperate madman willing to eradicate anything between himself and his survival, was portrayed especially effectively throughout the movie. You can just smell the insanity radiating from the character’s constant quivering mouth movements. Every one of his actions were either cold, calculated threats or life-threatening attacks and all were portrayed with elegant madness.
Although the movie had many disappointing parts, there were some scenes that really captivated the audience and made the movie a lot better. For an overall rating, we give it a 2.5 out of 5.