REJOICE FOR IT IS THE END OF THE Y.A. GENRE
Or so we think.
Well, before the next Y.A. thing pops up, allow me to just relish the moment as this franchise has now ended.
Off the back of The Hunger Games success and the full-on abandonment of The Mortal Instruments and Divergent franchises (on the big screen), this final instalment of the extremely sub-par Maze Runner series, which took a very long time to get made due to an injury suffered by star Dylan O'Brien on set, was actually a surprisingly good movie.
Since this movie was out a long time ago, I'll keep this review short and sweet.
What I liked:
I thoroughly enjoyed majority of the action sequences. I thought they were very well filmed and expertly choreographed, though the sheer incompetence of the guards who have even worse aim than Stormtroopers make the scenes less thrilling.
I mean, do you expect me to believe that Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), a novice, who wielded a 9mm pistol could take out multiple guards from a considerable distance while the latter struggle to hit the target with rifles despite their training to become guards?
Anyway, logic aside, these scenes were entertaining and Dylan O'Brien further cemented his status as a very talented and capable leading man, and I would love to see him do some work of much higher value than this Y.A. rubbish.
Great platform to make a name for oneself, though. Think about Jennifer Lawrence and her post-Hunger Games Academy Award success. For O'Brien's sake, I hope he manages to follow the same path.
I was also pleased with the supporting cast this time round. One major criticism I had of the previous movie was their sheer mediocrity and the fact that you don't really feel any emotions for the characters if any of them get in trouble or die.
Mercifully, these people do so much better in this movie and when some emotional moments happen, I did manage to feel a slight pinch so good job, movie.
Biggest improvement has to go to Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) who finally managed to show some form of emotion in this movie.
For the past two movies, I've bemoaned how she was another Kristen Stewart in that they are both pretty faces who have no emotions whatsoever. Basically sanded and polished pieces of wood.
Thankfully, Scodelario steers clear of Kristen Stewart territory with her performance in this movie.
Story-wise, I was kept entertained throughout. Despite a smattering of genre clichés, I was intrigued and was never for a second bored.
Visually, the movie is very appealing and at least there's some actual substance to back up the visual spectacle unlike The Scorch Trials (2015).
Oh, and the music by John Paesano was excellent, though not "excellent" to a degree where I'd buy the soundtrack or even listen to it on Spotify. From the opening action sequence and its thrilling accompanying beats and orchestrations, I was gripped through it all.
Such is the power of a good soundtrack.
What I didn't like:
I didn't like the fact that the movie expects viewers to actually remember the events of the last movie. It being two whole years ago and there not being even a little refresher montage at the start, I found it so difficult to figure out where this movie was picking up from.
I did speed-read through the Wikipedia synopsis during the ads before the movie but even then I struggled to even remember when and how those events happened - which is a testament to how forgettable it was.
The movie's antagonists were all completely predictable and just so mediocre that there's really nothing much to say about them. No change at all then from the last movie.
I also thought the movie was stretched thin in that it employed so many José Mourinho-esque time-wasting tactics in order to stretch the runtime to its painful 142-minute duration.
The movie could've easily wrapped in a nice and comfy 120 minutes with a properly done ending - but the movie we got was none of those things, and its ending was only sub-par.
You would think that with the end of a series of films, there'd be a nice sense of conclusion and closure. Think of Return of the Jedi (1983) or The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and how they wrapped their films in such lovely montages.
Then again, I am comparing this with some greats, so perhaps its unfair. Still, could've been a lot better.
All in all, Maze Runner: The Death Cure was an enjoyable movie with solid action and a decent story to pair with it.
Its cast is far more entertaining this time round as is the whole movie as a complete package, however, that isn't enough to save it from everything else which is just plain mediocre and sub-par.
I feel that this movie or this whole series, rather would have felt more at home or would have had more success if it had been released around the same time as the Divergent series was. Instead, they released it now - a time where comic book movies have never been bigger and where the Y.A. genre is all but extinct.
With this movie now done and dusted, I'm glad to see this genre die. May it never return, though there is this upcoming adaptation called Chaos Walking which is apparently based on a Y.A. book starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley?
Sigh. Just die.
6.5/10.
Well, before the next Y.A. thing pops up, allow me to just relish the moment as this franchise has now ended.
Off the back of The Hunger Games success and the full-on abandonment of The Mortal Instruments and Divergent franchises (on the big screen), this final instalment of the extremely sub-par Maze Runner series, which took a very long time to get made due to an injury suffered by star Dylan O'Brien on set, was actually a surprisingly good movie.
Since this movie was out a long time ago, I'll keep this review short and sweet.
What I liked:
I thoroughly enjoyed majority of the action sequences. I thought they were very well filmed and expertly choreographed, though the sheer incompetence of the guards who have even worse aim than Stormtroopers make the scenes less thrilling.
I mean, do you expect me to believe that Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), a novice, who wielded a 9mm pistol could take out multiple guards from a considerable distance while the latter struggle to hit the target with rifles despite their training to become guards?
Anyway, logic aside, these scenes were entertaining and Dylan O'Brien further cemented his status as a very talented and capable leading man, and I would love to see him do some work of much higher value than this Y.A. rubbish.
Great platform to make a name for oneself, though. Think about Jennifer Lawrence and her post-Hunger Games Academy Award success. For O'Brien's sake, I hope he manages to follow the same path.
I was also pleased with the supporting cast this time round. One major criticism I had of the previous movie was their sheer mediocrity and the fact that you don't really feel any emotions for the characters if any of them get in trouble or die.
Mercifully, these people do so much better in this movie and when some emotional moments happen, I did manage to feel a slight pinch so good job, movie.
Biggest improvement has to go to Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) who finally managed to show some form of emotion in this movie.
For the past two movies, I've bemoaned how she was another Kristen Stewart in that they are both pretty faces who have no emotions whatsoever. Basically sanded and polished pieces of wood.
Thankfully, Scodelario steers clear of Kristen Stewart territory with her performance in this movie.
Story-wise, I was kept entertained throughout. Despite a smattering of genre clichés, I was intrigued and was never for a second bored.
Visually, the movie is very appealing and at least there's some actual substance to back up the visual spectacle unlike The Scorch Trials (2015).
Oh, and the music by John Paesano was excellent, though not "excellent" to a degree where I'd buy the soundtrack or even listen to it on Spotify. From the opening action sequence and its thrilling accompanying beats and orchestrations, I was gripped through it all.
Such is the power of a good soundtrack.
What I didn't like:
I didn't like the fact that the movie expects viewers to actually remember the events of the last movie. It being two whole years ago and there not being even a little refresher montage at the start, I found it so difficult to figure out where this movie was picking up from.
I did speed-read through the Wikipedia synopsis during the ads before the movie but even then I struggled to even remember when and how those events happened - which is a testament to how forgettable it was.
The movie's antagonists were all completely predictable and just so mediocre that there's really nothing much to say about them. No change at all then from the last movie.
I also thought the movie was stretched thin in that it employed so many José Mourinho-esque time-wasting tactics in order to stretch the runtime to its painful 142-minute duration.
The movie could've easily wrapped in a nice and comfy 120 minutes with a properly done ending - but the movie we got was none of those things, and its ending was only sub-par.
You would think that with the end of a series of films, there'd be a nice sense of conclusion and closure. Think of Return of the Jedi (1983) or The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and how they wrapped their films in such lovely montages.
Then again, I am comparing this with some greats, so perhaps its unfair. Still, could've been a lot better.
All in all, Maze Runner: The Death Cure was an enjoyable movie with solid action and a decent story to pair with it.
Its cast is far more entertaining this time round as is the whole movie as a complete package, however, that isn't enough to save it from everything else which is just plain mediocre and sub-par.
I feel that this movie or this whole series, rather would have felt more at home or would have had more success if it had been released around the same time as the Divergent series was. Instead, they released it now - a time where comic book movies have never been bigger and where the Y.A. genre is all but extinct.
With this movie now done and dusted, I'm glad to see this genre die. May it never return, though there is this upcoming adaptation called Chaos Walking which is apparently based on a Y.A. book starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley?
Sigh. Just die.
6.5/10.
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