Thursday, January 25, 2018

Maze Runner: The Death Cure - The Thrilling Conclusion of the Maze Runner Trilogy

Finally the third Maze Runner movie played in theater after the last one back in 2015. So yes it was a long time to wait for a final movie especially since the first and second movie only had 1 year span. We in Indonesia were quite lucky as it did not play far behind the US premiere. Since the movie had Dolby Atmos sound effect, my wife was kind enough to accompany me see this one at a studio that had the sound system in Epiwalk, despite it was not her most favorite places to hang out. Ok let us move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The movie started months after the event of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, where the Gladers led by Thomas (Dylan O'Brien - American Assassin, Teen Wolf TV series etc) with his best friends from their previous time in the maze Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster - Love, Actually, Death of a Superhero etc) and Frypan (Dexter Darden) were trying to help Minho (Ki Hong Lee - Wish Upon etc) escape from the organization who were doing experiments on them earlier named WCKD (referred as Wicked). The three of them were accompanied by Brenda (Rosa Salazar - CHiPs movie, Night Owls etc) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito - The Usual Suspects, Breaking Bad TV series etc) to find where Minho was placed and experimented on by Wicked to find the cure for the virus. 

Meanwhile Teresa (Kaya Scodelario - Pirates of the Carribbean: Salazar's Revenge, Wuthering Heights etc) was now fully assisting Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson - The Green Mile, Pieces of April etc) who was Wicked's head of research for the cure. She believed that her work was really important that could save all humans. Wicked's head of security Janson (Aidan Gillen - Game of Thrones TV series, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword etc) who was supportive of the research, was always looking for ways to capture all the immune people especially Thomas.

So could Thomas and his friends save Minho and the rest of the immune children from Wicked and also destroy the organization? Find them all in this entertaining action science fiction movie.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie had a duration of more than 2 hours which I think was to capture the essence of the conclusion of the whole story. I personally felt that it was a good choice since I understand that previously there was a plan of making the finale into 2 parts like Hunger Games and Divergent series which would make the movie most likely boring and a bad way of trying to make big bucks. Hunger Games finale part 1 was having too much conversation while Divergent's last movie (at the time I write this) never make it to the conclusion because of its low commercial success. We have to thank the director Wes Ball who was the one insisting of the movie not to be split in 2 parts.

As a fan of action movies and I believed majority of the audience who saw this one in theater with us last night (which btw was fully packed) were very satisfied with the movie that was almost full of action and intense moments. The movie started off very brightly with an intense action sequence, then there was also brief suspenseful scene involving Cranks (the zombie-like humans infected by virus) but in the middle the movie pace slowed a lot. Until the final third of the movie which gave us a full blown high octane entertaining action sequences.

I loved the conclusion of the movie as I think it really suit the main story which was supposed to be the cure. I also loved the make up effects and of course the amazing sound effects especially during the fights, shooting, explosions and suspenseful scenes. The movie did not only provide us action sequences, but there were some emotional moments as well towards the ending which I know affected my wife a bit.

Since the time my wife and I saw the first movie, we were pretty hooked with the series. The first movie was mysterious and very suspenseful especially during the times when the Gladers were trying to escape from the Maze. The second movie was also very interesting especially in the beginning but then the story became a bit more complicated. Now I thought that the final movie would be very complicated, but surprisingly it was not the case. I was able to capture the essence of the movie quite easily. However, it would only be understood if you had watched the first and second movie. If I got to choose though, I honestly felt that my experience seeing the first movie was the best, because of the intriguing and intensity plus the mystery surrounding the Maze.

One thing that was a little bit disappointing was the appearance of Walter Goggins (The Shield and Justified TV series) as a forgettable character which makes me felt he was underutilized for such a good actor. Plus the slower pace in the middle that took a bit too long to my opinion. But overall it was still a very much enjoyable fun ride and definitely a worthy conclusion of this trilogy. Oh in case you are wondering, there was no end credit scene to this movie so you could immediately go to the restroom if you had been holding off for more than 2 hours.

So if you have watched the first and second movie, this one definitely is a must see movie. But if you have never seen them before, then you have to see The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials first in order for you to understand the storyline of this movie.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

PS: The Movie was adapted from the novel of same title written by James Dashner. The reason why it was playing only 3 years after the second movie was due to the fact Dylan O'brien had a severe accident during the making of this movie and the production had to stop for almost a year.

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