Maze Runner : The Death Cure (dir. Wes Ball)

Few film trilogies are as forgettable as the recent schlock of young-adult dystopias which rose from the ashes of the TWILIGHT & HUNGER GAMES craze. Evidence for this can be gleamed from my complete ignorance on the MAZE RUNNER series, as it's third and thankfully final episode, based on James Dashner's best-selling novels, flies into cinemas even if it's doubtful anybody actually asked for it's existence.

Following on from it's previous two installments: 2014's The Maze Runner and it's successor The Scorch Trials, Death Cure is yet again another over-the-top young adult dystopian episode which wishes it had the profundity and emotional angst of it's much superior counterparts. With news that other series such as Divergence was hitting the small screen instead of a cinematic exit, many of us in Hollywood had hoped the was a sign that audiences weren’t interested in the YA dystopian craze that took full flight at the turn of the decade. But of course money speaks more than integrity does, and the numbers have always get the last word. Bolstering near $700m worldwide gross combined for it's first two incarnations, it's clear that there's little more than dollar signs and healthy calculations in the mind of the people behind this sequel, which is dutifully evident also from it's half-hearted approach to storytelling.

Adopting for a narrative approach more in-line to the Transformers series, Wes Ball's threquel is loud and brash, with many sequences involving car and train chases, shoot-em-up exchanges with zombified humans and jumping out of buildings. Of course - if you have forgotten about the previous incarnations and you aren’t sure where you are in the story, well then you’re out of luck. Our film starts right where the last film left off, and if you want to understand whats going on, you’re probably best finding a "previously on" video on YouTube to keep you up to speed, as the film certainly expects you too.

Most of the drama plays out with little or no interest in narrative weight; our group of merry survivors are close to destroying evil corporation WCKD, led by Aiden Gillan's Janson and Patricia Clarkson's Ava Page, who were responsible for putting out maze runners in captivity in order to harvest their blood for an antidote to cure the blight which has decimated mankind, or left those exposed into zombified monsters. Teaming up with Giancarlo Esposito's Jorge and others, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden), attempt to retrieve Minho (Ki Hong-Lee) who is being kept hostage at their headquarters in "The Lost City", as is former friend Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) who believes WCKD's methods are a means to an end, and destroy them once and for all.

There’s little here that you haven’t seen before - for all the glitz and glamour in the action sequences - you’ll find yourself looking at your watch more than putting your hand over your mouth. Also, at 142 minutes, it’s a hard slog to deal with, even if this is usual for a final episode. There's some delight in the older cast - newcomer Walton Goggins is always watchable, as are Patricia Clarkson and Aiden Gillan, but it all feels very outdated. Some four years have passed since the birth of the series, though in that time audiences have grown tired of the production-lined nonsense with which dystopian dramas seem to consist of. The most interesting thing about The Maze Runner's final installment is how it managed to stay off everyones radar, even in an era of Hunger Games and Twilights, and as it's lead actor suffered life-threatening injuries on-set, it's forgettable fodder with only some incidental arresting sequences.

Rating 2/5