Maze Runner: The Death Cure *** (2018, Dylan O’Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Ki Hong Lee, Katherine McNamara, Rosa Salazar) – Movie Review

In the epic finale to The Maze Runner saga, Dylan O’Brien returns as young hero Thomas, who leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final mission to break into the WCKD controlled last city and save their friends, in the process finding a cure for the deadly disease Flare.

That’s it – that’s the entire plot for 142 minutes. Series director Wes Ball can dress it up as much as he likes with jaw-dropping CGI images and gut-wrenching action sequences – and boy, does he like! –  but at the end of the day there isn’t much of a story to tell here and very little decent dialogue or character development. Sure, there are lots of surprises as characters turn up from the dead, change from bad guys to good guys at the drop of a hat, and unexpectedly get killed off. But they are all contrived, fake surprises, as phony as the often overblown CGI.

The more that Wes Ball goes big, the smaller the movie gets. There is essentially a taut little action thriller trying to crawl out from under here, but we hardly ever see it. The film’s few efforts to get serious, as with the deadly virus issue or the loss-driven finale, are totally forlorn and lost.

Wes Ball goes for a mix of Mad Max, James Bond and Divergence. So it is a very strange mix that doesn’t bear any thinking about. Despite its obvious efforts to broaden its appeal (pounding action) and disguise its origins (what’s happened to The Maze?), it stays very much as a young adults’ movie, and a showcase for its pin-up stars.

Dylan O’Brien stars in Maze Runner: The Death Cure.

To enjoy, just go with the flow, take the nailbiting action as it comes, worry about Dylan O’Brien’s safety doing the stunts, enjoy the young performers eager efforts to please, keep brain permanently in neutral, and find a cinema with a very comfy lounge chair. If the chair is comfy enough and the room warm enough, you might manage a little welcome snooze to help pass the time in the film’s repetitive, slowing-down middle section. That is if the very loud and unsubtle score will let you.

With the first two films being so unmemorable, a recap at the start would have been a great help. But no, Ball goes straight into action on a moving train. It’s fine but there’s no context. We have absolutely no idea why this sequence is happening, undermining its excitement quotient. But don’t ask! Ours is not to reason why! Certainly I do remember The Maze and lots of running in the first two films. But this time we only get running, oh plenty of running! Oh, to be fair, this time we get lots of death, and there is a cure! After all, it’s called The Death Cure!

[Spoiler alert] One other thing I think I do remember from the first film was that one of the best things about it, Will Poulter, was definitely killed off. So it was as much a surprise to me as it is to O’Brien that he suddenly turns up as large as life here as Gally (and I mean large, he’s 6′ 2″, towering over O’Brien at 5′ 10″. Well, actually, it wasn’t any surprise at all. Poulter appears in the trailer and there he was in the cinema, along with the other stars, introducing the movie.

The script-writers had a lot of explaining to do, but it all goes for nothing. He’s been stabbed to death in 2014, and now he’s alive again. O’Brien punches him (‘I deserved that’) because he killed his friend, and then proceeds to trust him simply because he says he knows how to get into the WCKD controlled last city. Well, that’s alright then. They manage to rescue Minho (Ki Hong Lee), who looks mega-surprise momentarily to see Poulter. What? ‘I’ll tell you later,’ says O’Brien. I’d like to have seen that scene. I bet these writers couldn’t write the dialogue for that one!

Meanwhile, of course, Sonya (Katherine McNamara) has gone over to the dark side, led by the evil Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and her evil henchman (Aidan Gillen). But things are going to change on various fronts there too, and just as unconvincingly as Poulter’s re-arrival on the scene resurrected from the dead. It will come as no surprise that hero Thomas still harbours love in his heart for Sonya. Despite his action man exterior, he is a warm and soppy boy at heart, just the kind of boy teenage girls want, a fantasy boy you can’t find in the real world, just in The Maze Runner and kindred teen fiction.

At least McNamara, Clarkson and Gillen have plenty to do – and do it well (even if surprise casting Clarkson seems way off her usual turf). McNamara is very feisty, and even convincing, and Gillen is a really good villain. However, other actors are wasted because the script doesn’t know what to do with their characters, and it turns out they are only there to rescue O’Brien when he gets into trouble – Rosa Salazar as Brend, Walton Goggins as Lawrence, Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge and Barry Pepper as Vince. Needless to say, these are the best characters, and arguably, the best actors in the movie, so this is a shocking waste.

O’Brien, Brodie-Sangster, Poulter and McNamara are personable and good to spend time with, however, largely overcoming their no-acting required roles by force of pleasant personality. They look as though they could be good fun too, in a film that allowed some laughs as well as action.

It follows The Maze Runner (2014) and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015).

The Death Cure topped its opening weekend box office with an estimated $23.5 million. But, with the largest budget ($62 million) of the three films, it comes in $7 million behind the debut for The Scorch Trials and $9 million behind The Maze Runner.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is released in cinemas on 26 January.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com