You’d be forgiven if you have forgotten about “The Maze Runner” franchise. You’re not alone. In the general scheme of YA adaptations, ranging from genuinely good (“Harry Potter,” “The Hunger Games”) to the stupendously bad (“Twilight,” “Divergent“), James Dashner‘s post-apocalyptic action-thriller book series has inspired some fairly average film adaptations. They’re watchable if formulaic, moderately intriguing if mostly far-fetched, and ultimately pretty disposable. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad; they’re just sorta there. And with the trilogy-closing instalment, “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” returning director Wes Ball wraps up the dystopian film series in similarly middling fashion.
The story picks up not long after the previous installment, ‘The Scorch Trails,’ which came out back in 2015. If you mostly remembered what happened in the last movie, then congrats, you’re a step ahead of me when I entered this final chapter. ‘The Death Cure’ starts out strong, with an exciting, “Mad Max“-inspired chase sequence where our lead hero Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), along with his trusted companion Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and newfound allies Brenda (Rosa Salazar) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito), embark on a daring rescue mission. It’s a thrilling sequence, and one that sadly results in the sequel’s best moment, one it never tops in the rest of its overlong and exhausting 142-minute running time.
From there, Thomas and the remaining Gladers are put to the ultimate test, as they break into the Last City to save Minho (Ki Hong Lee) from the cruel experiments being performed by the rather awkwardly-named World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department, better known as WCKD. Inside, Janson (Aiden Gillen), Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) are hard at work trying to find the cure for the Flare, the deathly disease that wiped out most of the world’s population. Time is running out, and Ava is starting to give up hope, while Janson becomes more ruthless in his intentions. But as the Gladers work their way into the heavily-guarded Last City, and reunite with a few friends they took for dead, they kidnap Teresa, who betrayed them either a movie or two ago, to help them save their friend. But with Thomas still struggling with his hard feelings for Teresa, and with WCKD mercilessly on their trail, they’ll discover that the Last City might be their largest and deadliest maze yet.
For what it’s worth, ‘The Death Cure’ is the darkest and best-directed “Maze Runner” film in the series. Even though the movies themselves get weaker as the franchise continues, Ball grows more assured and capable as a filmmaker — notably as the budgets get bigger, the locations become most vast, the set pieces grow more all-encompassing and the stakes get ever higher. While the sequels lack the mysterious intrigue and intensity of the original, they almost make up for this lack of tension in terms of sheer scale. The source material suggests a fairly generic framework, based solely on what’s presented here, but Ball’s movies have vision. They’re more stealthy and periodically captivating then you might otherwise think. Is it still fairly routine? Sure. But Ball has promise as a studio director, and I’m genuinely curious to see where he goes next.
But that does little to make up for just how dull ‘The Death Cure’ can be at times. It’s one chase after another, presented with such a lack of humor and creativity, and it can all become quite trying. With that said, ‘The Death Cure’ is aided by its talented cast. O’Brien is still an endearing lead, while Clarkson, Esposito and Gillen continue to lend their gravitas to the story in commanding ways. And the general sense of world-building continues to serve as the greatest strength of the franchise. The story itself isn’t especially unique, but the world that it inhabits remains engrossing. However, when the narrative attention zeroes in on the characters, that’s when the movie is in trouble. Because while the performances are finely crafted, the characters themselves aren’t that interesting, and follow familiar YA patterns we’ve seen before.
For fans of the franchise, ‘The Death Cure’ is a fairly serviceable finale. Assuming, of course, that it’s really the end. And if it is, then “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” left as it came: promising at first, but then the victim of repetition and overfamiliarity. This is probably the last time I’ll actually think about “The Maze Runner” series at any length…at least until the next YA franchise comes along. [C+]