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Maze Runner: The Death Cure Movie Review

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is a 2018 young adult action film directed by Wes Ball and starring Dylan O’Brien. It is a stupendous, highly solid film.

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“Do you regret it? What you did to us?

Sometimes. But I did what I thought was right“

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Yes, I did not expect the quality of this film to be this high. When it comes to my ranking, certainly it is weaker than the original which easily remains the best and most entertaining entry, but it is such an obvious improvement upon its mediocre predecessor and a very strong way to end the trilogy.

The plot continues to be unremarkable, though somewhat improved here. It has many of those typical dystopian young adult trappings such as teens against the government and adults, but the reason why the film ended up being very engaging lies in excellent action execution, solid characterization and very good acting. It also has some excellent scenes such as the opening action scene, the elevator sequence and of course the entire ending which is so sad and highly effective.

Thomas continues to be your typical boring, bland protagonist in a Hollywood blockbuster, but Teresa is excellent and I loved her complex character here and her goals and actions are very interesting and they brought a lot of solid conflict into the picture.

Newt is also pretty good, Minho is forgettable but it was great seeing them go to full length to save him and the villain is very strong and so well played by charismatic Aidan Gillen. Dylan O’Brien is very likable in the main role and the standout one is this time around Kaya Scodelario who gave such a strong performance. She went full circle from a weak performance/character in the first film to the best character in the final one.

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Maze Runner: The Death Cure is bland in terms of storytelling and although the first and final act are pretty solid, the middle section lagged and was uninteresting. The film is definitely way too long and should have been cut a bit and better paced. But it is otherwise well shot and with pretty good special effects for such a small budget. Wes Ball is the one to congratulate the most here for directing an otherwise weak story so surprisingly well and that led to such a solid conclusion to an uneven trilogy.

The Death Cure features once again a pretty bland, familiar dystopian young adult plot and the film is way too long in runtime, but it actually ended up being a pretty solid final film in the trilogy and a marked improvement upon its mediocre predecessor. That’s owing to very well executed action scenes, solid characterization (Teresa is the most interesting one here), very good performances and a strong ending. Wes Ball is the one most responsible for elevating this weak material with his excellent directing.

My Rating – 3.5