Maze Runner Loses Route in Frantic Final Chapter

By Katherine Monk

The literal maze is gone. The metaphysical maze remains. So as far as growing-up metaphors go, The Maze Runner series was a well-planned voyage from personal isolation to political engagement. Yet, despite the narrative map, the third and final instalment — The Death Cure —gets a little lost on the way to the finish.

Given three years have lapsed since we last saw Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and the rest of the ‘gladers,’ it’s easy to feel a little lost in the opening frames of Wes Ball’s latest. A bunch of kids are on a train in shackles, meanwhile, Thomas and a crew of rebels are trying to disengage the wagon, hook it to a futuristic hovering airplane and fly it away to safety.

Thomas wants to save his friend Minho (Ki Hong Lee), but while the rescue mission is successful, Minho isn’t in the airlifted quarry.

If none of this makes sense, remember Thomas is the kid who woke up in a glade at the top of the franchise. He’s one of several kids stuck there, surrounded by a maze full of threats and obstacles. The first two movies saw Thomas unite the ‘gladers,’ escape the maze and discover the truth about the outside, grown-up world. Civilization has been destroyed by the spread of a zombie-like virus infecting all humans, save the rare few with a genetic immunity.

Thomas and the rest of the kids were all immune, so the remaining grown-up power figures known as W.C.K.D decided to keep them in a cage (aka the glade) and use them for experiments. Thanks to Thomas and friends, they escaped the glade and maze, but the virus is still out there and even with help from grown-up rebels, the sickness is winning: The virus is now airborne.

It’s all a life or death affair, but there’s no clean line through this labyrinth of lingering stares and smouldering debris. Director Wes Ball gets distracted by the pyrotechnics and action sequences, allowing his bag of dramatic breadcrumbs to scatter from the blast force of the endless, and frankly repetitive, explosions.

It’s all a life or death affair, but there’s no clean line through this labyrinth of lingering stares and smouldering debris. Director Wes Ball gets distracted by the pyrotechnics and action sequences, allowing his bag of dramatic breadcrumbs to scatter from the blast force of the endless, and frankly repetitive, explosions.

It’s a flaw we can find some forgiveness for given the production delay and the emotional trauma of the shoot itself: O’Brien was injured while performing a stunt on the Vancouver set. He needed facial reconstructive surgery. Everything stopped. The fate of the franchise was uncertain.

So, give it to O’Brien, Ball and the whole gang for finishing what they started. Morever, doing it with such gusto. The Death Cure looks and behaves like the grand finale it deserved to be in light of The Maze Runner’s half-a-billion dollar haul at the box-office thus far.

The sets are big, the action is big, and now, four years after we first met them as teenagers in the glade, the actors are big, too. Literally. Will Poulter’s character, Gally, clearly hit a growth spurt, as did Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster). Fortunately, Thomas (O’Brien) — thanks to plastic surgery — escaped the Monty Clift asymmetry and looks the same, outside of some newly sprouted chest hair.

They aren’t really kids anymore, and while this could register as a visual problem if you watched the films back to back, it actually helps Ball get a grasp of the burgeoning maturity of his characters.

He may not give them emotional showcases with long scenes or extended dialogue, but even through the smoke and staccato shrieks, the cast does its best to bring some emotional depth to the frantic denouement.

Ball doesn’t get in their way, but his script offers no help. They never have anything all that interesting to say. Thomas’s whole voyage is about learning to work with others while forming his own truth. Navigating the hazards of love and friendship, as well as understanding the humanity of one’s so-called enemy, are core lessons in the struggle to be a caring and compassionate world citizen.

We all know it can be a crazy maze. But you can’t run through it. The Death Cure doesn’t stop to take its breath, get its moral bearings or even send up a flare of momentary defeat. Characters are pushed into plot corners and sentenced to explanatory dialogue in Ball’s rush to make it to the finish line. There’s no doubt he gets there. We even get a speech, but after the mind-numbing action marathon, there’s a sad lack of sensation.

@katherinemonk

THE EX-PRESS, January 26, 2018

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