Anybody recently watch the video of Tom Cruise completely obliterating his foot doing stunts for MI:6. He was out for a couple of weeks and the shoot was delayed for a couple of weeks. The same thing happened to Dylan O’Brien back in 2016 on the third day of shooting Maze Runner: The Death Cure. He injured his head on a stunt from the first scene in the movie. Shooting was so delayed that instead of coming out first quarter 2017, it came out this past weekend. This year-long delay made a lot of people forget that Maze Runner was even a thing, especially after The Scorch Trials (if you are asking yourself “what’s that?”, then you can see my point).
When Maze Runner came out in 2014, there was a worry that it was just another Young Adult novel cash grab after the successes of Harry Potter and Twilight. But it was one of the biggest surprises of 2014. It was a well-acted, suspenseful thriller that faithfully adapted the novel while still feeling fresh. Then the sequel, Scorch Trials, came out a year later. I truthfully don’t remember much about it besides being a mix of World War Z and I Am Legend because of how CGI they made their “cranks” (the humans/zombies ravaged by the disease killing off the global population). A forgetful sequel and a 2-year delay did not look good for The Death Cure, but this trilogy’s finale was so entertaining that you could watch this movie without having seeing the previous entries (though you really should treat yourself to the original).
Maze Runner: The Death Cure is all-in-all a great action movie. From the first scene, you are thrown into the action and taken on a tense and suspenseful thrill ride. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, the movie is about 10-15 minutes too long. Plus, it contains about every single action-movie cliché line they could find. Luckily, the movie drags for only about 15 minutes in the first act and the pacing increases through the end. The strength of the action sequences and the character relationships makes the last hour and a half fly by. You move closer to the edge of your seat as the movie races towards its conclusion. But what really makes your heart race during all the explosions, chases, and shootouts is the fact that you care about the characters who are fighting for their lives. There is one action sequence in the third act that sums up what this movie does so well: it mixes intense action with an emotional heart that will make you cheer, cry, shout, and hold your breath all at once (at least that is what the person next to me was doing).
The actors clearly connected with each other over the span of three movies. The care they have for each other and for the story permeates through the screen. Giancarlo Esposito (Jorge) and Rosa Salazar (Brenda) make more of a connection than they did when they were introduced in Scorch Trials. Aiden Gillen (Jasper), a.k.a. Littlefinger, is menacing doing what he does best: play Littlefinger. A certain spoiler of a character with the fiercest eyebrows steals every scene in which they appear, advocating for their necessity to be in many more films. Ki Hong Lee’s (Minho) strength through adversity, Dexter Darden’s (Frypan) subtle levity, and Kaya Scoledario’s (Theresa) conflicted sense of morality are great complements to the two characters who are the heart of the film. Dylan O’Brien’s Thomas and Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s Newt carried this film with a soul, intensity, and vulnerability that created a brotherhood between the two as authentic as seen on the big screen in a long time. Dylan O’Brien also does his best Paul Walker in The Fast and The Furious impression, relaying the importance of the family you choose. It’s this sense of family that makes the characters more relatable, and the action more commanding.
The Maze Runner Trilogy has done something that has not been done in the Young Adult Novel Adaptation genre since The Hunger Games: have two surprisingly fresh and entertaining movies that stays true to their source material while still being their own entities. The Death Cure is a great time during the lull of the January movie season. I give Maze Runner: The Death Cure 7/10 dangerously arched eyebrows.