Starring Dylan O’Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Kaya Scodelario, Ki Hong Lee

Directed by Wes Ball

20th Century Fox, out January 26

The final part of the Maze Runner trilogy sees Thomas and his fellow Gladers attempting to find the legendary last city, rescue their friend, and determine once and for all the secrets behind WCKD and its actions.

There’s an odd tension about The Death Cure which recurs from its predecessor – for all that it presents a visually gorgeous, sprawling world, it has a tendency to feel limited, as if the people and places it shows to the audience are all specifically crafted to serve the narrative, rather than being living, organic entities which form the basis of a story.

Take the Cranks, for example. Their capabilities, habits and behaviour do not seem to exhibit any kind of coherency. They tend to appear in dark places, with the suggestion being that dark, enclosed environments are their natural habitat, yet they chase our protagonists out in open daylight when the plot deems it convenient. In much the same way, they appear as swarms when the intention is for the audience to be fearful that our heroes may become overwhelmed, yet will only ever attack in ones and twos when the protagonists are alone.

That sort of narrative convenience extends everywhere, and it takes away from what is otherwise a very competent exercise in action cinema. It means we have villains who have only as much nuance as any one scene demands of them, leading to internal conflict in one scene and total conviction in the very next with no real journey to get there. It works on protagonists as well, leaving us with characters who start out being adversaries and then quickly become friends with no particular logical path of progression from one to the other.

It’s perhaps unfair to expect much nuance in a franchise where the bad guys name themselves WCKD (pronounced literally by everyone as ‘Wicked’) but it’s a constant tonal discord, as the film tries to be two different things at once – a popcorn action movie and a cerebral dystopian sci-fi. It has aspirations at the latter, but in all honesty if it had stuck firmly to the former, it might have done a lot better.

Because make no mistake, the action scenes are glorious. The opening sequence alone is a kind of Fast and Furious meets Mad Max hybrid that works very well, and the film does its best to maintain that momentum as it goes forward. The problem is that every once in a while it feels the need to stop and explain itself a bit, like the director felt if he just added enough monologues and big speeches about the nature of friendship, sacrifice and duty on both sides, it would somehow elevate the material from generic action to something else. It doesn’t, however, and it isn’t helped by the fact that a lot of that dialogue literally feels like people making speeches rather than actually talking to one another.

However, the cast does the best with what they have, and when it’s barrelling along, the action coming thick and fast, and everyone is making their way through the carnage as best they can, it shines. Giancarlo Esposito and Rosa Salazar as (presumably though never actually addressed by the movies) adoptive father and daughter duo Jorge and Brenda are easily the standouts, stealing every scene in which they appear. Dylan O’Brien is competent in a fairly bland way as central protagonist Thomas, and Kaya Scodelario never quite feels like she measures up to what is arguably the most nuanced character in the series.

L-r, Dylan O’Brien, Giancarlo Esposito, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rosa Salazar and Dexter Darden (truckbed) in Twentieth Century Fox’s “Maze Runner: The Death Cure.”

Switch your brain off as you go in (and you’ll need to if you are to ignore all the obvious plot holes and inconsistencies – WCKD have drones that can scan crowds of thousands in the streets and identify one individual, but also apparently have very few security cameras in their facilities) and you will have a blast – the action is well-filmed, impressively scaled and features some inventive set pieces. Just don’t expect anything beyond a brainless action romp.

Verdict: Action-packed, but a little bit dumb, this is a nice bit of popcorn fodder that should satisfy teen audiences, but may disappoint anyone looking for something a bit deeper. 6/10

Greg D. Smith

 

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