Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) review

Ever since the Harry Potter film series became the global phenomenon that it technically still is today, many studios tried to capitalize on its success. And thus, several films based on novels from the young adult genre, which are often marketed towards the teen demographic, proceeded to get greenlit. However, several of these attempted franchises were unable to get off the ground due to their first installments often being critical/commercial disappointments, with the only major exceptions being Twilight, Hunger Games, and Divergent. And even then, of those three franchises, only Hunger Games managed to attract the same kind of critical success that Harry Potter had achieved. But in 2014, one attempt at a new ‘young adult’ film franchise surprisingly managed to succeed where several others had previously failed. The Maze Runner, which was based on author James Dashner’s 2009 novel of the same name while also serving as the directorial debut of former VFX artist Wes Ball, managed to fare quite well with both critics and audiences. And on just a modest $34 million budget, it grossed nearly $350 million worldwide. One year later, it was then followed by a sequel in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. It too managed to do well at the box-office though its overall critical reception wasn’t as strong compared to its predecessor. Still, here are we now with the finale to this dystopian tale, Maze Runner: The Death Cure. While the film’s release had to be delayed for almost an entire year after series lead Dylan O’Brien suffered some serious injuries during its production, it also didn’t go the same route as franchises like Hunger Games and Twilight by being split into two films. It’s a good thing, too, because after the rather disappointing affair that was The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure allows this franchise to go out on a good note.

Throughout the course of this series, we’ve followed the adventures of main protagonist Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his conflict with the organization known as WKCD. After a devastating solar flare ravaged the planet, which was then followed by an outbreak of a virus known as ‘the Flare’ that turns its victims into zombified creatures known as ‘Cranks’, WCKD subjected those who were immune to the virus through a series of experiments to try and find a cure. When Thomas (a former member of the organization) opposed their methods, he was placed inside the very same experiments that he had a hand in working on. However, with the help of his fellow ‘Immunes’, Thomas managed to break them out from their maze-like prison while still being pursued by WCKD’s leader Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and her military leader Janson (Aidan Gillen). Things came to a head at the end of The Scorch Trials when Thomas’ friend and fellow former WCKD employee Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) betrayed their group, leading to WCKD capturing several members of the resistance group known as the Right Arm and fellow Maze survivor Minho (Ki Hong Lee). In response, Thomas, Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden), and ‘Scorch’ survivors Brenda (Rosa Salazar) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) embark on a perilous mission to both rescue their friends and to take down WCKD before they can harm any other children who are immune to ‘the Flare’. To do so, they must venture into WCKD’s heavily guarded main base of operations, which also happens to be the ‘Last City’ currently left standing on Earth.

Two of the best aspects of this franchise have been its production design and its action sequences, and both have managed to improve with each new film due in part to an increase in budget since the first film, effectively allowing the opportunity for more elaborate visuals and grander-scaled action sequences. But, of course, a lot of this is also thanks to Wes Ball’s continually solid direction, as he once again proves to be quite an effective director when it comes to action sequences. But then there’s also the writing, which is a lot better than what we got in this film’s immediate predecessor. Whereas the first Maze Runner managed to have a surprisingly engaging mystery plot, especially for those going in who weren’t familiar with the source material, it felt that, with The Scorch Trials, the story began to play second fiddle to the franchise’s action set-pieces. And as good as those action sequences were, they ultimately weren’t enough to make up for The Scorch Trials’ numerous narrative shortcomings. Thankfully, that’s not as big of an issue here. While the film is still primarily action-oriented like the second film, there’s also a lot more focus on the plot and its characters. In other words, The Death Cure feels a lot more like the first Maze Runner in terms of its overall execution. And given that this is the final installment of the series, it does manage to end it all on a generally conclusive note even if some plotlines and character arcs don’t exactly get proper conclusions to them. Heck, the film even manages to have a few genuinely solid emotional moments here and there.

With that said, though, it’s understandable if some may find this film to be rather bloated, and this is largely due to it being the longest entry in the series by far at nearly two and a half hours long. But while I do agree that it is perhaps a tad bit overlong, at the very least it never felt as emotionally empty as The Scorch Trials often was; trust me, if it did, then that hefty runtime would’ve been a far bigger problem. And this is mainly thanks to the franchise’s solid ensemble cast, which has been another key element to its success. Since the beginning, this series has relied heavily on its cast of young leads while the bigger names in the cast (e.g. Giancarlo Esposito, Barry Pepper, etc.) were given noteworthy supporting roles. And these young leads are once again excellent in their respective roles, highlighted by the main duo of Dylan O’Brien (who, as a lead actor, has matured just as much as this franchise has) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Thomas and Newt. Newt, especially, gets some big character moments in this entry that are incredibly well-handled. On that note, the film also makes sure to atone for one of the biggest shortcomings of The Scorch Trials by delving further into Teresa’s decision to betray her friends and work with WCKD again (something that was barely touched upon in that film due to the character’s limited screen-time) in the hopes of finding a cure. This, in turn, results in stronger character development for Teresa and arguably Kaya Scodelario’s best performance in the role. Finally, as for the film’s main villains, Patricia Clarkson and Aidan Gillen are also solid once again in their respective roles as Ava Paige and Janson, but without giving anything away, one ends up having a far more substantial role in the plot than the other.  

(P.S. There’s also a surprise cameo that I can’t talk about that much due to it being a big plot spoiler, but I will say that it too helps this film regain a lot of the spirit of the first film that was lost during the second film.)

Looking back, the original Maze Runner was truly quite the success story, and not just because it was part of a genre that usually yielded mixed results. It had a far smaller budget than most franchises of this genre, served as the directorial debut for a then-untested director, and was almost entirely centered on a cast of young leads. And yet, it ultimately turned out to be quite good; at the very least, better than most recent YA film adaptations. With that in mind, The Death Cure mainly serves as one thing; further proof as to why The Scorch Trials turned out to be quite disappointing. Seriously, the best way that I can describe the second film is that it was basically what many people feared the film version of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was going to be like, a ‘middle chapter’ without much focus. By comparison, The Death Cure boasts stronger emotional stakes for its main characters that yield some incredibly effective poignant moments. And despite some of the series’ biggest plotlines ultimately going unanswered, the film does serve its purpose of being a proper finale for the story that was initially set up in the first film while still maintaining the franchise’s knack for solid action sequences. With that said, though, I will agree with the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes in that those who weren’t already invested in the Maze Runner franchise, to begin with, aren’t going to get much out of this film. But for those who are fans of this series and were rather disappointed with how The Scorch Trials turned out, like I was, then I bet that you’ll be far more satisfied with The Death Cure as it’s far closer to the quality of the first film than the second… arguably better even…

Rating: 4.5/5

Deepwater Horizon (2016) review (450th Post!)

In 2013, Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg teamed up for Lone Survivor. The film told the true story of ‘Operation Red Wings’, a 2005 joint military operation that went south as a group of Navy SEALs found themselves stuck right in the middle of enemy territory in Afghanistan. The film was a solid success with both critics and audiences and it seems as if Berg and Wahlberg have now become a new major collaborative duo when it comes to doing films based on real-life incidents and the heroes who were directly involved in them. Later this year, they have another project coming out in the form of Patriots Day, the story of the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. But before that, they have a different ‘true story’ project that comes out first with Deepwater Horizon. Deepwater Horizon tells the story of what became one of the largest environmental disasters in the history of the United States; the 2010 BP Oil Spill. It occurred on April 20^th, 2010 on the semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon, when a buildup of methane gas caused a massive explosion. 11 workers lost their lives and a considerably large amount of oil, over 210 million gallons to be precise, was released into the Gulf of Mexico. Obviously this was a major incident when it occurred and sparked tons of controversies, particularly in regards to BP’s handling of the whole situation. But similar to what Michael Bay did with 13 Hours earlier this year, Berg doesn’t really delve into the political side of the incident. Instead, the film focuses in on the workers who were on the rig at the time of the explosion and their efforts to survive. And ultimately like Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon is an intense and visceral action/disaster thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout.

On April 20^th, 2010, Chief Electronics Technician Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), Dynamic Positioning Operator Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez), and Offshore Installation Manager Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) arrive at their place of operations, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon. However, it appears that things aren’t really going too well at the moment on the rig, which is currently situated at the Macondo Prospect oil field in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. As soon as they arrive, they notice another team leaving and learn that they hadn’t done the cement log test that they were supposed to be doing in order to analyze the integrity of the rig. As the crew begins to deal with increasing pressure from their ‘superiors’, namely BP Executives Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) and Robert Kaluza (Brad Leland), in regards to them being ‘behind schedule’ on their drilling operations, Harrell manages to convince them to run tests on the rig in order to ensure that everything is running smoothly. The first test seems to imply impending disaster but when Vidrine requests a second test on a different section of the rig, that test goes much smoother. However, it turns out that the first test was indeed correct as a build-up of methane gas in the main pipe causes a massive explosion that engulfs the entire rig in fire, putting Williams, Fleytas, Harrell, and the rest of the 126-man crew in an extremely perilous situation as they try to escape from the burning rig.

One thing that I really have to give director Peter Berg credit for in regards to both this and Lone Survivor is that he does a really good job in regards to establishing a great sense of tension by means of the action. Seriously, this film is intense. In fact, sometimes I even wonder how this film managed to get by with a PG-13 rating considering some of its most intense moments, namely a scene in which Harrell pulls a John McClane from Die Hard by taking out a shard of glass from his foot (eck…). Well, to be more specific, all of the action in the film occurs in the second half following the explosion. The first half of the film is primarily build-up, as we see the main members of the crew head out onto the rig and deal with the problems that are starting to emerge on it. But once the second half rolls around and the big explosion occurs, it is non-stop tension throughout. As a few other critics have no doubt pointed out, this is practically like a horror film with the devastation of the explosion posing a very considerable and constant threat to the crew members. Because this is a PG-13 rated film, the action doesn’t get as brutal as it did in the R-rated Lone Survivor (save for the aforementioned ‘pulling glass out of foot’ scene) but you’re still on the edge of your seat throughout. I mean just seeing these people on a burning rig with nothing but fiery destruction going on in the background really gets to you, especially considering that this really did happen. In short, this film definitely pumps up the adrenaline during these scenes.

Now from what I hear, it appears as if this film has been a bit controversial amongst certain audiences, namely due to the fact that, as I alluded to earlier, it avoids going into the politics surrounding the incident as well as the consequences of the subsequent oil spill. Instead, the film focuses in on the explosion that started it all and the people who were on the rig at the time of the incident. But even with that said, sort of like Lone Survivor admittedly this film is more action-oriented than it is character-oriented. Ultimately the primary members of the crew that get the most focus/screen-time are Mike Williams, Andrea Fleytas, Jimmy Harrell, and Drill Crew Floorhand Caleb Holloway (Dylan O’Brien) and even then their characterizations are fairly simple at best; Williams is the main guy trying to get back to his family, Harrell is the wise veteran, Donald Vidrine is treated as an antagonist in the whole ordeal, etc. But overall this film actually does do a decent enough job when it comes to setting up the whole incident from their perspective. Because the film does take a considerable amount of time setting things up before the rig explosion, we as an audience are allowed to connect with Williams, Fleytas, Harrell, and their fellow crew-members. This is particularly evident by the cast’s solid camaraderie as well as the final moments of the film. I’m not spoiling anything when I say that if you’re familiar with this incident, you probably already know that the primary crew members do get rescued at the end. But the final scene in which Williams really starts to cope with everything that he just went through is quite powerful. In fact, I’d say that it’s one of the best bits of acting that Mark Wahlberg has ever done.

Well it seems as if Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg have become quite the team when it comes to doing films based around real-life heroes. This was the case with Lone Survivor, I bet it will be the case with Patriots Day, and it’s definitely the case with Deepwater Horizon. The primary similarity between this and Lone Survivor is that both films are quite intense in regards to the incidents that they depict. Sure pretty much all of the action in this film occurs in the second half but when it does, boy is it intense. If anything, Peter Berg definitely succeeds in terms of creating a truly visceral thriller. And while the film does focus more on the intense action than it does with its characters, just like Lone Survivor, at the very least it still does a pretty solid job at allowing us to connect with the workers on the oil rig, even if it’s mostly just centered around a select few crew members. But like Lone Survivor, it does end by respectfully paying tribute to those who lost their lives during the incident. Now if you’re going into this expecting to see anything in regards to what happened afterwards, whether it’s how BP ended up getting charged on 11 counts of manslaughter as a result of their ‘gross negligence’ or the effects that the subsequent oil spill had on the environment, prepare to be disappointed because you won’t find any of that here. However, as far as being an intense and visceral action thriller is concerned, the film definitely succeeds in that regard.  

Rating: 4/5

The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) review

As far as 2014 was concerned, one of the biggest surprises for me when it came to that year’s lineup of films was ‘The Maze Runner’, the film adaptation of the first in a series of novels of the same name written by James Dashner. I hadn’t read any of the books going in and given the usual quality of young adult book-to-film adaptations not named ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘The Hunger Games’, suffice it to say I didn’t really go into this film with ‘high’ expectations. But at the end of the day, maybe that was the reason why I ended up really liking it. As far as these kind of adaptations were concerned, it was easily one of the better efforts from the genre. Having not known much about the series beforehand, I found the first film to have a very engaging mystery plot as well as a solid cast, genuinely tense action sequences, and an overall excellent production design. Sure it may have ended on a truly obvious ‘sequel-baiting’ quote but the rest of the film was so compelling that I was legitimately eager to see what happened next. And now, one year later, the ‘Maze Runner’ saga continues with ‘The Scorch Trials’, once again directed by newcomer Wes Ball. This time around, our heroes are out of the Maze and now find themselves in the dystopian world known only as ‘the Scorch’. The end result is a film that admittedly lacks the same compelling plot of the first ‘Maze Runner’ but still manages to maintain a lot of its predecessor’s biggest strengths.

At the end of ‘The Maze Runner’, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers; Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), Minho (Ki Hong Lee), Frypan (Dexter Darden), and Winston (Alexander Flores), managed to escape from the Maze that the organization known as WCKD had trapped them in. But at the same time, they also learned that the Earth had been ravaged by both a solar flare and a deadly virus also referred to as ‘the Flare’. As ‘The Scorch Trials’ begins, Thomas and his friends are brought to a facility full of kids who were also placed in Maze-like situations just like they were, run by a man named Mr. Janson (Aiden Gillen) who tells them that there they’ll be safe from WCKD, the Flare virus, and the zombified creatures known as Cranks that spawned from it. But as Thomas and the others soon find out, Janson is really a member of WCKD who, along with the head of the organization, Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson), are experimenting on those who are immune to the ‘Flare’ (e.g. Thomas and his friends) in the hopes of finding a cure. This leads to Thomas and the other Gladers escaping from the facility, as they must now traverse the desolate landscape of ‘the Scorch’ in search of a resistance group known as ‘The Right Arm’ who might be able to help them stop WCKD.

Whereas the first ‘Maze Runner’ was confined to the titular Maze and ‘the Glade’ that it surrounds in terms of its locales, ‘The Scorch Trials’ is allowed to expand on its post-apocalyptic universe, as is the usual case with bigger-budgeted sequels. The production design is just as solid as it was in the first film and the greater scale of it all allows us to get a much greater sense of the world that this series creates. Ball’s direction is once again superb and the film’s action sequences are solidly tense in execution. Not only that, but the addition of the zombie ‘Cranks’ definitely gives this film a much creepier atmosphere when compared to the previous film. But if there’s one advantage that ‘The Maze Runner’ has over ‘The Scorch Trials’, it is that it had a much more compelling plot. It may have had something to do with the fact that I hadn’t read the book first but I was legitimately interested to find out who put Thomas and his friends into the maze just as much as Thomas did. ‘The Scorch Trials’, on the other hand, is a generally straight-forward ‘road’ story. As a result, the film actually kind of feels a bit aimless at times.

Not only that, but the film is rather lacking in terms of character development. The main characters at least have the benefit of having been already introduced and established in the first film. But even with that said, some of the main characters sort of get ignored at times during the film in favor of a greater focus on Thomas. Perhaps the biggest case of this is Teresa who, without giving too much away, has a major bit of character development during the final act of the film. Ultimately though, this crucial character moment doesn’t really carry a lot of oomph to it given the fact that she’s been rather absent for a good chunk of the film. But even with the lackluster amount of character development in this film, the cast is just as solid as it was in the first film. The returning cast members still have great camaraderie with each other and Dylan O’Brien is able to take on a much meatier role this time around now that Thomas is done being the audience’s ‘avatar’. The newcomers to the cast are solid as well, including Giancarlo Esposito and Rosa Salazar as a pair of survivors who become key allies of Thomas’ group and Barry Pepper and Lili Taylor as members of ‘The Right Arm’ resistance. As for the villains, Ava Paige and Janson, while they’re not really in the film enough to be truly intimidating antagonists, both Patricia Clarkson and Aiden Gillen do their jobs in making their characters fittingly despicable.  

Despite all that I’ve said in this review, I want to make it clear that I did still like ‘The Scorch Trials’. Ultimately though, while I’ve seen quite a few people say that this is an improvement over the first film, I’m on the opposite side of that argument as I feel that the first ‘Maze Runner’ is the better film. Both films do benefit from confident direction from Wes Ball, a solid amount of action, and a strong cast. But whereas the first film had a much more compelling plot, ‘The Scorch Trials’ suffers from weaker plotting and character development. Seriously this film is at least 10 minutes longer than the first film and yet has a much leaner story. How is that even possible? So I guess you can say that while the first film was a pleasant surprise for me given the fact that I hadn’t read the books going in, this film was a bit more disappointing now that I’m actually invested in this series. But again, I still found this film to be entertaining for what it is. Sure this series still isn’t as good as ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘The Hunger Games’ but it’s definitely one of the better film franchises of its genre. Though with that said, if you’re not a fan of these young adult book-to-film adaptations, you’re not going to get a lot out of this film. But if you did like the first ‘Maze Runner’, then you’ll probably like this film too. And despite the bigger issues that I had with this film, I’m still genuinely interested in seeing how this story is going to end, which we’ll get in 2017 with ‘The Death Cure’. Thankfully, unlike a lot of other franchises of this genre, it won’t be split into two films.

Rating: 3.5/5

The Maze Runner (2014) review (250th Post!!)

One of the big film genres currently dominating Hollywood is the ‘Young Adult’ genre AKA films based off of best-selling books. I guess you could say it really got started when the first ‘Harry Potter’ film was released in 2001. Of course we all know how successful that franchise was and in the early years of its existence, other studios tried to cash in on the success of ‘Potter’ by adapting other best-selling book series to film like the ‘Inheritance’ trilogy, the ‘Alex Rider’ series, and ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. However, none of those series were really able to match the success of ‘Potter’. The first real franchise to do this was the ‘Twilight’ series though really that’s more from a commercial standpoint because well, to put it quite simply, those movies are straight-up terrible. And once Twilight become popular, the ‘Young Adult’ genre cycle started up again and once again we saw numerous franchises like ‘The Mortal Instruments’ and ‘Beautiful Creatures’ attempt to cash in on ‘Twilight’ and of course most of them struck out big time. Now that ‘Twilight’ is over, ‘The Hunger Games’ has become the next major successful ‘Young Adult’ film series. ‘Divergent’, released back in March, managed to be successful enough for a follow-up and this month it looks we have another new franchise on our hands in the form of ‘The Maze Runner’, based off of the 2009 book of the same name by James Dashner and I can safely say that this is easily one of the better films of the ‘Young Adult’ genre.

The film begins as a boy named Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) finds himself in a dark elevator with absolutely no memory of who he is or what has happened to him. He ends up in a mysterious grassy area where he comes across a group of other boys who have established their own community in this area, which they refer to as ‘The Glade’. Thomas learns that they have been trying to escape via the large maze surrounding ‘The Glade’. However, for the last three years they have been unable to find a way out for two main reasons. First of all, the maze changes every day but what’s worse is that at night the doors leading into the maze close. Those who end up trapped inside then have to deal with a bunch of strange creatures known as Grievers that inhabit the maze. Thomas soon manages to prove himself when he becomes one of the first Gladers to ever survive a night in the maze and as he gains the trust of the others, he soon begins to try and figure out not only why they are all here but to also find a way to escape this place with the help of some of the other Gladers, including ‘Runner’ (The term used to describe the Gladers who try and figure out a way out of the maze) Minho (Ki Hong Lee) and the one and only female Glader Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who apparently connected to Thomas in some way.

I just want to preface this review with a quick disclaimer: I have not read ‘The Maze Runner’ so this film basically served as my official introduction to the franchise and overall I must say that it was a very satisfying first look. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the story is pretty compelling. You are as much in the dark as Thomas is when it comes to why he and the other Gladers were put in the Glade so you’re interested in finding out the truth. Without giving anything major away, the final payoff may be hit or miss for some people but I found it to be pretty intriguing even though it does sort of introduce a major plot-point in just the final few minutes of the film and from what I’ve read online, this plot-point isn’t even introduced in the books until the second novel, ‘The Scorch Trials’ (that and the film does have one of the more obvious ‘sequel-baiting’ final lines in recent memory). Still, the movie does hold your interest from beginning to end and I am very much interested in seeing how the rest of the story is going to play out. The visuals are pretty solid in regards to the overall production design, especially when it comes to ‘the Maze’. And that’s not that surprising considering that the film’s director, Wes Ball, has mostly been known for his work in visual effects. Ball makes his feature-length directorial debut with this film and overall he makes a pretty solid first impression in regards to his directing.

Another one of the film’s biggest strengths is its cast. The character of Thomas is a pretty likable lead character and O’Brien certainly has the right amounts of charm and likability that makes him perfect for the role. As for the rest of the cast, one of the big things about the story is how the rest of the boys in the Glade have established a perfectly functioning society. The arrival of Thomas in the Glade results in some of the Gladers, most notably Gally (Will Poulter), believing that Thomas’ behavior/actions will end up ruining the peaceful existence that they have been living for the last few years. It’s an interesting story dynamic and the main members of the cast do have excellent camaraderie with each other. It really does sell the whole idea of these boys having made their own personal society in a way that has been described as ‘Lord of the Flies mixed with Lost’. Also, it is pretty nice to have a Young Adult film franchise centered on a male lead for once whereas other films in the genre (especially in recent years) have primarily been led by female leads (e.g. ‘Hunger Games’, ‘Divergent’, ‘Twilight’, etc.). That’s not the case of ‘The Maze Runner’, which features a pre-dominantly male cast save for two female characters. In other words, you can sort of refer to this film as ‘Hunger Games for boys’ and I’m perfectly fine with that.

So unlike ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Hunger Games’, I went into ‘The Maze Runner’ having not read not the book beforehand. But after seeing the film, I can safely say that I am now very much interested in checking it out because ‘The Maze Runner’ is certainly one of the better films of the ‘Young Adult’ genre. Of course having not read the book I can’t really say anything about how faithful this film is to the source material. However, I can say that the film greatly benefits from having a story that is pretty compelling that will keep you wondering what’s happening until the very end. Plus, the film has a pretty solid cast, with an excellent lead in Dylan O’Brien’s Thomas and a group of boys with great camaraderie with one another. And like I said earlier, it is good that the ‘Young Adult Book Adaptation’ film genre will now be a little more balanced thanks to this film being centered on a male lead and featuring a mostly-male cast. I assure you that I will be there next year when the second film of this series, ‘The Scorch Trials’, hits theaters and I’m glad to see that one of the better films of the Young Adult genre is experiencing the success that not every Young Adult film franchise has had.

Rating: 4/5