Maze Runner: The Death Cure product reviews

I am glad that I had already seen the first two movies in this series as I was able to pick up the thread of the action straight away whereas one of the friends who was watching it with me was quite puzzled as to what was happening, and who were the "goodies" vs the "baddies", so the rest of us had to fill in the gaps for her. However, once we were ten minutes into the film, she had caught up on the back story and was able to sit back and enjoy it with the rest of us. Since we were prepared for a movie full of action and special effects, with the requirement that the viewer be ready to suspend all disbelief, we got pretty well what we had expected.

Some of the special effects in the action sequences were among the best any of us had seen in recent movies. The train carriage, and later the bus, being lifted into the air by cables attached to a helicopter were especially compelling viewing and we were quite prepared to accept that all the occupants were unharmed on both occasions. Nonetheless, there was that intake of breath as each of us felt that first anticipation of disaster to come! We also liked the "zombie" style makeup of the infected (known as cranks - possibly after the German term "krank" or "sick") and the Griever design (although the Grievers did not feature as frequently as they did in the earlier movies). A lot of the sets and costume reminded us of those used in the Star Wars series, but there were also echoes of other movies in more recent times like The Hunger Games series.

The storyline was patchy at the start: we were a quarter of the way into the movie before there was significant development in the narrative. Many of the opening sequences seemed to be more concerned with establishing the situation, like the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid style beginning and Minho's VR torture session, which was an interesting variation on the usual flashback technique. Once the film was well underway, however, the plot picked up and for the remainder of the film it was a full-on ride to the conclusion.

There were some interesting character developments which challenged the usual ideas of good and evil. Two characters in particular showed an ambivalence which prompted the viewer to work out which side they were really on, posing the theory that nobody is either completely good or completely evil; there is a sliding scale of where everyone fits, and even that is subject to change. One of these characters was Gally who was an enemy at the start of the movie but within a very short time had become an ally. The other, of course, was Teresa - possibly the most enigmatic of all.

Science fiction, both in books and in movies, has always explored the "what-if?" of life. As in The Death Cure, it explores the different ways in which scientific and technological advances can impact on ordinary people's lives, whether for good or bad. The dystopian society featured in this movie presents an environment where a plague (The Flare) has infected most of the population and only a very few people can restore "normality". There are choices to be made: should the needs of the few be sacrificed to those of the many, and when is killing another human murder and when is it justified?

There were some questions we had while watching the movie - where did they refuel their vehicles when there were never any petrol stations in evidence, and why were the boys' clothes so clean when they had just emerged from a filthy tunnel? We discussed these, and others as well, after we had watched the movie through, but did not have the answers.

As a sci-fi fan ever since I learned to read, I enjoyed every moment of this movie. Of the three in the trilogy I thought it the most successful in terms of special fx, and it ended on a suitably positive note. My friends also enjoyed it and all four of us agreed that we would be interested in seeing it again. Possibly as part of a binge session with all three movies back to back.