Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Maze Runner: The Death Cure – With their forces devastated, Thomas and the Right Arm are hitting WCKD where they can to rescue kidnapped children and look for their friend, Minho. But WCKD need Minho as their best chance of creating a cure to the horrific Flare virus and have him in the last safe city on Earth. Thomas, Newt, Frypan and Brenda all need to break in, but an uneasy alliance made with rebels and former friend Teresa holed up inside, there are more elements at play than anyone can predict.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) – Director: Wes Ball

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56321569

Rating: 12

Running Length: 142 mins

Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario

Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Horror

REVIEW: ‘MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE’

The young adult dystopian future genre is a busy one. Essentially boiling down to oppressed teens rebelling against unreliable adults (with some hormonal attraction in the mix) the formula is going to have a certain degree of success regardless, but what makes a series stand out is how it pulls it off. The original Maze Runner took a rather cumbersome and thin book with a great premise (mysterious maze, ‘Lord of the Flies’ stranded teens, claustrophobic setting) and made that premise shine (we called it a surprise hit at the time). Follow up, ‘Scorch Trials’, suffered from a lack of depth but made up for it by constant adrenaline edge of the seat action. So what does concluding chapter ‘Death Cure’ bring to the table?

In ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ no more time is spent with exposition. We know everything we need to know. Apocalyptic world overrun with zombie-like ‘cranks’; Flare plague infection spreading; oppressive organisation WCKD (World in Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department) trying to find a cure through the kidnapping and experimentation of ‘immunes’ (the younger the better); and escapees Thomas & co trying to rescue friend Minho (taken at the end of the last movie). The rescue attempt takes them into the last remaining city where WCKD and the lucky few are walled up in relative safety. In theory, there should be plenty of time in the 2 1/2 hour run time to add all the character depth that will make their arcs land with satisfying conclusion.

Unfortunately not. Whilst the action remains exciting and the world-on-the-brink-of-destruction setting compelling, these promising ingredients are somewhat squandered by the series’ eternal problem: characters. The whole series revolves around Thomas as the linchpin for all that has happened, but ‘Death Cure’ still can’t give him any depth beyond a singular mission (rescue Minho this time). In ‘Scorch Trials’ the purpose was survival and the action was enough to carry it along. But in ‘Death Cure’ we are hitting supposed emotional payoffs which aren’t given enough screen time to gestate.

A huge moment in the concluding act is clearly supposed to be a kick to the heart, but as there is barely any quality interaction spent before hand it doesn’t hurt as deeply as it should. Brenda, the promising strong woman from ‘Scorch Trials’ is relegated to ‘reliable back up’ which is a shame as she clearly has the most charisma. Even the shock return of a character thought lost barely adds any oomph as they are also stuck in the vortex of ‘supporting Thomas’. But Thomas, unlike other dystopian series lead Katniss (The Hunger Games), has no undercurrents of reluctance, leadership, or anguish on which to hang the movie. He is focused on the task at hand beyond what makes for interesting viewing.

The compelling performances come from the other side of the fence. Teresa (Scodelario) works within in her ‘have I made the right choice’ remit well and Ava (Clarkson), as chief WCKD scientist behind the Maze Runner programmes, veers between hope and despair compellingly. Indeed, unlike other dystopian teen series, WCKD is the most believable antagonist organisation so far as they aren’t evil for evil’s sake: searching for the cure is their genuine goal. If the movie could have dialled back some action and spent some quality time with its characters then ‘Death Cure’ could have festered in the mind long after the credits roll. Hints are there: attraction implied at but never explicitly addressed, armed rebels who bizarrely shift from ‘we want in the safe zone’ to ‘lets utterly annihilate the safe zone’ without context; the sudden lethal action of a character whose reasons only get suggested at afterwards rather than foreshadowed. Everything is geared up for ‘EXCITING CONCLUSION’ without paying the ground work dues first.

‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ is the weakest link in an otherwise solid series but regardless is disposably entertaining. It looks great. It has lots of exciting action. And sometimes that is enough. But as time moves on we suspect only the original ‘Maze Runner’ will be the one worth getting lost in again.

CONTENT: IS ‘MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

During the opening scene involving a train heist, there is various examples of bad language throughout from the main cast.

During an hallucinatory sequence, Minho appears to be back in the ‘Glade’ – the wooded area from the first movie. He spies children from a distance and a moment later they are nearby – running through the woods. He is then inside some corridors and it slowly becomes clear that he is being stalked by a Griever (large monstrous, part mechanical spider-like creatures from the first movie). Minho is terrified and runs but the Griever keeps pace with him through the corridors. At one point Minho’s arms freeze in place and he becomes stuck to the ceiling as the Griever passes underneath. In a jump scare, one of its claws thumps into the ceiling by Minho and the camera slowly fixes on a large horrible monster face with no eyes and layers of teeth. The scene then cuts away.

Some characters drive through a dark tunnel. They are attacked by ‘cranks’ (zombie like people who are infected with the ‘flare’). In a jump scare, one bangs on the window of their car. Another begs for help, but becomes increasingly deranged. More attack the car and the characters drive away in fear. A crash leaves them upside down in the car. The scene calms for a moment as they get out, but they are then surrounded by cranks. This is very tense and the whole scene lasts around 5 minutes. The cranks are very aggressive and make loud screeching noises.

A large angry crowd gathers outside the walls of a heavily defended city. When one character is identified as being in the crowd, an order is given and large sentinel guns fire indiscriminately into the crowd, killing many. This is shown as explosions (rather than gun fire) and people are thrown by the force of the explosions and presumably killed. We see no specific deaths or blood, but an aerial shot afterwards shows many bodies lying dead on the floor.

One leader character is introduced by another by them saying ‘try not to stare’. The character is first shown in darkness but then revealed to have no nose. The lack of nose is open to the air and half of the character’s face is ravaged with waste. The character talks normally and, although attached to a drip, does not seem in pain.

A young girl is in a medical setting. She has the flare but has not yet turned into a crank. She is given an injection which makes her wince. She says through gritted teeth that ‘it burns’. Another character comforts her and they have a pleasant conversation. However, shortly after the girl violently succumbs to the flare and the character who comforted her is upset.

Minor surgery detail is shown as something is removed from the back of a character’s neck, shown on camera.

In an escape attempt, several characters jump out a very high smashed window and land in a swimming pool below. Whilst they are fine we mention this as jumping from high places into water is imitable and can be dangerous.

Riots take place as a large amount of people storm the city. There is shooting and explosions, often near major characters. One character is infected with the flare and is slowly turning into a crank. As the point comes where they lose themselves this is shown in slow motion and with emotional music playing. The scene lasts around 5 minutes culminating in a battle for survival between two characters and a knife fight. One stabbing is shown to enter a character’s upper chest and they cry out in pain. Another stabbing happens suddenly and the knife is shown protruding from their body. This character is then left on the floor and dies. As this has been a major character throughout all three films this is likely to cause upset.

Two characters are talking when one is shot suddenly from behind. They recoil in confusion before the camera pans down behind them to show a rapidly expanding red patch. They then collapse and die.

A main character is shot. Blood spreads through their clothes and there is minor injury detail when they are giving padding to put pressure on it. Some blood pours from the wound.

One antagonist is shown to be knocked to the ground by a few cranks. He tries to fight them offer but they maul him whilst he screams. The camera pans out as they start to bite him although this is more implied from his writhing rather than seen. There is some brief strobe / flashing lighting at this point.

During a rescue attempt atop a skyscraper another skyscraper collapses onto the platform that characters are standing on. This causes the floor to give way and one major character, shortly after saving another, falls in slow motion to their death. They disappear behind a cloud of smoke and fire as they plummet. Other characters cry out in anguish.

During the ending a previously unknown letter written by the character who became a crank is discovered. It is read out by way of voice-over as another character reads it. As this character has now died the moment is very emotional and the person reading cries as they read.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

n.b. – The below trailer has some small cuts which remove a jump scare, lessen the scariness of the cranks attacking the car, and remove shotgun impact reaction.

VERDICT: IS ‘MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE’ FOR KIDS?

We felt that the amount of potentially unsuitable content was actually less in ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ than the previous instalments, ‘Scorch Trials’ (which had a heavy horror bent) and ‘Maze Runner’ (which has lots of high tension and peer pressure). Instead angling for a high action take, this is more of your typical guns and explosions fare. However, the movie is pretty bleak and even the ending, whilst having a haven of sorts set up, doesn’t address the worldwide devastation. With very little light relief constant threat / action throughout, (as well as scary moments with the cranks) we would recommend that ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ is unsuitable for children aged 10 and under.

• Violence: 4/5 (explosions, death, shooting, fist fights, knife fights and wounds)
• Emotional Distress: 4/5 (deaths of major characters, the slow succumbing to infection, repercussions of betrayal, depression at hopelessness)
• Fear Factor: 3/5 (the cranks are less present this time around but remain scary when they are present)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (a brief kiss)
• Bad Language: 3/5 (frequent moderate usage (particularly in the first act) used as exclamation of surprise, moderate insults, a middle finger is used as an insult on two occasions)
• Dialogue: 2/5 (talk of torture, threats to kill, discussing the death of humanity)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of human extinction, ethics, ends justifying the means, betrayal, consent, terminal infection, no person left behind, and destructive rebellion)

Words by Mike Record

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