Maze Runner 3 The Death Cure review- by Chris Stuckmann

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

[00:00:04] Maze Runner of the Death Cure is the third and final film in this franchise and once again was directed by Wes Ball and stars Dylan O’Brien as Thomas, who finds himself in a climactic battle against an evil corporation trying to find a cure for this terrible disease known as the flare. When it comes to the Maze Runner movies, I think out of all young adult adaptations we’ve seen of recent years, this has probably been one of the most consistently find franchises. There isn’t an awful entry, in my opinion, and it’s considerably better than other young adult franchises we’ve seen like Mortal Instruments or Twilight. This film franchise actually has some merit to it because it has great, talented people behind the camera and in front of the camera with death. Cura Dylan O’Brien continues to impress me. He’s an actor I would love to see in a great film. I think he has so much potential. He was very seriously injured during the making of this movie doing a stunt and it was life threatening and the whole production had to shut down, which pushed back the release of this film considerably. He dedicates himself quite a bit to his roles and I would really like to see him be given a better opportunity. Clearly, as an actor, when you see a franchise like this or his recent film American Assassin that had Michael Keaton in it, you jump at that chance.

[00:01:18] But he has yet to be involved in a truly great film. And I think that he has the potential to do something really special. And while the death cure certainly is not a fantastic film, it basically falls into the same weaknesses of the first to the first film is well directed with great action. The second film is well directed with great action. The third film is also well directed with great action. But they all have a story that feels stretched very thin, particularly this film, because it’s very long and that’s an easy complaint’s. It’s very easy to sit down and say this film is too long and that’s why it’s not good. I wouldn’t even say that death cure is not good. There’s plenty to like in this movie, and it’s certainly better than I expected going in. It’s just that it takes quite a bit of time to tell a very simple story, because in the long run, this movie is actually not so much about the cure. That’s certainly a major element. I mean, it’s in the title this evil corporation is trying to find a cure to this virus that basically turns people into walking zombies. But in the end, it comes off kind of like a subplot where the actual storyline is Thomas and his friends searching for their buddy who’s been imprisoned.

[00:02:29] And they spend pretty much the entire movie doing it gratefully. There’s a lot of really well directed action scenes along the way and good enough performances to make me feel somewhat invested. But for a third film in a franchise, it didn’t feel as climactic as I wanted it to. Dylan O’Brien is very good, but his character Thomas isn’t really given that weighty material you expect to see in the final film of a big franchise for a hero’s journey over a three film arc, it has to feel like they’ve truly changed. And yeah, he has certainly changed from that awkward kid who came up from the elevator in the first film. But by now he’s basically an action hero and he spends most of the film being an action hero. But the things that really should have made him change and evolve as a character feel almost like background elements at times, a past relationship and a friendship that I must say was actually really touching. And one of the best elements of this film beyond the fact that Wes Ball has shown himself to be a pretty good director with these films, especially with helming convincing and exciting action sequences, I must commend him for one specific reason he made his trilogy. How many times with these Y.A. adaptations has a director come in, made the first film, got famous, got known and then went on to do other projects? It always happens with almost every single major Y.A.

[00:03:48] adaptation. Very rarely does a director who comes on stay with the franchise. Westfall stayed with it. He made all three and he committed to it. And you can tell that he really tried to make these films as good as they could be. But it’s unfortunate for this film that the previous two didn’t really invest me all that much. So I can’t really blame this film for the fact that I walked in not really caring because the previous two are at fault for that. This film tries its hardest to invest me once again. And while the action sequences are certainly pretty exciting and the production quality is actually a lot higher than I expected it to be in the end, the story just wasn’t all there for myself. I’m going to give Maze runner of the death here a C plus. That’s the same grade I’ve given all three. So at the very least, I can say the series has been consistent. It’s just that it’s been consistently fine. It could be better and it could be a lot worse. Guys, thank you so much, as always, for watching. If you like this, you can click right here and get stubbornest.