Maze Runner Death Cure critique- by CBC News

Full-text transcript of the Maze Runner: Death Cure review:

[00:00:03] Who put it? We don’t know. We don’t know, but if we were sent here for a reason, you’re so close to the truth. Don’t you want to know why this all happened? I don’t know, my heart rate’s up, seems like to me there’s lots of action in the third installment of the Maze Runner sci fi adventure series, it’s called The Death Cure. We’ve got CBC’s Eli Glassner here to talk about it. You never mince your words. And I’ve heard that you think that the title of this movie is apt, at least the death part. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I felt like dying a couple of times watching this film. And I should warn you, if you’re a film fan, you might know this time of year I describe it as the little Briatore pits of cinema. I mean, this is where studios send their movies to die. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve already kind of gotten the Oscar bait that’s now making its way across Canada. And so this is when they release movies, not quite smart enough for the awards season, not quite flashy enough for summer or spring, not entirely worthless enough to go straight to DVD. And so here we are, Masroor to the death here. Let’s talk about this movie. It’s the end of the world. Solar flares did bad things to the earth.

[00:01:10] It made some people turn into zombies. There’s an evil government corporation that’s forcing boys to run through mazes in order to find a cure. They are called the World Catastrophe Kills or department or wicked for short. Now, I vaguely remember the first film. It was surprisingly sadistic for a movie aimed at teens. The number three number three in the series stars Dylan O’Brien as Thomas. He is our unstoppable hero. He looks like a paper boy, but he can run and jump like James Bond. We catch up with the hero and his friends as they’re looking for one of their captured powers. Now, of course, even though he’s heroic, he can’t do it on his own. So we have instead kind of the the Avengers of action clichs at his side, starting with someone I like to call explainer. Man, take it away. Explain, man. They took you because you’re immune to a plague that’s wiping out the human race. You know, they think you’re worth sacrificing to find a cure. I’ll never stop talking. Stop that. Yeah, maybe you should stop, of course, every heroes only as good as his funny British sidekick. Let’s meet that guy. Three years we spent behind walls trying to break out now, trying to break back in, I guess, sugar pie. Let’s give the women a chance, beginning with the plucky ex-girlfriend.

[00:02:36] The world is dying. We find a cure, that’s the only way all this was. And finally, there is a villain. Her name is I don’t even know her name is, but she’s played by Patricia Clarkson. Let’s see what she has to say. Thomas, you can save your friends. You can save us all, save us, Thomas. I think it’s too late, but it’s a good thought to keep in mind and maybe save us from the writing. Is there any cure for the writing in this film? No. I mean, so the writing Horwitt it, right? I mean, just an avalanche of cliches. So you think, well, maybe the action maybe the action will redeem this film? Well, this movie, when it comes to action, has a series of issues. And it’s not just the fact that Dylan O’Brien, during the shooting of this film was very seriously injured in a stunt, actually had to take 11 months off to recover. Then he went and did the stunt again, this time a little safer. I’d like to tell you that he suffered for his art. Well, I think we suffered, but it’s not art. Maze Runner three has a lot of issues. When the hero and his friends aren’t running around this dystopian playground that looks like Riverdale meets Mad Max, the movie suffers what I call the 18 problem.

[00:03:50] You remember the 18 from the 80s where the bad guys were always shooting at the good guys. The good guys never got shot. The bullets just curve around them. We have that issue. Any time you see something that’s like a good effect, a good stunt sequence. Well, if you liked it the first time, how about the second or the third? They tend to repeat a lot of these things and then it’s just incredibly derivative. We start with basically a Hunger Games not knock off. Then we have something like World War Z, a lot of zombies playing hide and seek. And then we finally get to the headquarters where they’re battling in this hidden city, which looks like a bargain basement Blade Runner, which turns into the towering inferno and the running time of this masterwork of mediocrity. Two hours and one to three minutes. That sounds painful. The only good news besides the fact that I watched this so you don’t have to, is that this series of books, there were five of them. They say this is the third and final installment. I can only hope that they are right. One and a half stars out of five doesn’t mince his words. Thank you, Eli. You’re welcome.