The third Maze Runner film (The Death Cure) limped (har) into the theaters this weekend and I went to see it out of some kind of obligation to see it through. Wasn’t excited, was barely interested. The first Maze Runner was ok… it was alright for what it was… a YA novel turned into a film with a decent mystery (a bunch of teens are mysteriously trapped in the heart of a killer maze). Its sequel The Scorch Trials was just bad… and it turned into a generic post-apocalyptic zombie film. But here’s the thing about this third movie… to my surprise, to my amazement, to my startlement, to my gobsmackery… it’s a damn good movie. Not “good for a sequel to the first film” but good on its own merits as an exciting action/adventure sci-fi flick.
I don’t know how it happened either. I went into the movie thinking it’d be ninety minutes and done when it launches directly into a surprisingly good action scene. A train heist that managed to merge a Mad Max film with a good Fast and Furious film. But when it was over, we were thrust back into whatever the plot was from the totally forgettable previous film and the movie got down to business of being an acceptable but not remarkable time at the movies. But as it progressed, I kept getting this feeling that something GOOD was happening. I was actually getting into the plot even without action scenes propping it up.
So I assumed this film had changed directors… someone else had to be at the wheel. But, no, it’s the same ex-FX guy who made the first two. So maybe he just learned his lessons and got good or, unfortunately, maybe it was how the film got finished. The movie’s star – Dylan O’Brien – was seriously injured on set and was down for six months. Maybe that gave them more time to tighten the editing, take more time filming scenes, or whatever while he recuperated. I don’t know… but something changed for the better and I’m very curious to see what this director can do next.
Now, ok, so the third in a series is really good but I can’t let it off the hook completely. The plot is very limited – the film is basically just a rescue attempt where our heroes must break into a guarded city, into a high-tech stronghold, and free their nondescript friend without getting caught. It’s a basic heist/rescue and the film doesn’t make a convincing argument why we should care about this one captured dude. Plus the dialog fell out of the dialog tree and hit all the cliche branches on the way down. Heard that line in hundreds of other movies, yer gonna hear it here too.
But, even then, a curious thing happened. The characters, who I didn’t care for one way or another in the first two films, here get strong emotional scenes that SHOULD NOT have worked. I started to care about their survival and felt shocked when maybe not all of them survive. It’s so weird because the first two films didn’t manage this at all and then there’s a 180 and now there are dramatic character-driven scenes that worked. It was a weird cognitive dissonance over the fact they had not earned these dramatic scenes in the previous films yet here I was caring in this one. And that should normally be a fail since you can’t make me care NOW… not after all this time… but they did.
The movie looks amazing… the previous two movies looked good too but they really put their budget on screen this time. Not just the visual FX of destroyed cities or the one bright shiny surviving city here… but the integration of all the actors, the stunt work, and the action scenes. Apparently the film had a 66 million dollar budget which is low for a big Hollywood sci-fi FX-driven action flick. They managed to make it look so much better than some of the more expensive flicks.
Look… odds of you going to see this are remarkably low. It’s coming out two years past anyone really caring and if you haven’t seen the previous two, this is not the time to step in now. Seeing it would require three hours or so of lesser to bad movies and who’s got time for that? But if you have seen the other two, this is certainly worth a watch. Even if you think I’m over-zelousy selling it, there’s certainly something here that’s good. Even the real critics are acknowledging the action scenes are well-filmed (even if they don’t like the rest of the flick). So, yeah, check it out… situationally.
Score: 86