Monday 18 December 2017

2018 Movie Preview – Maze Runner: The Death Cure



Originally published on Set The Tape

‘In the epic finale to The Maze Runner Saga, Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary last city, a WCKD controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get the answers to the questions the Gladers have been asking since they first arrived in the maze. Will Thomas and the crew make it out alive? Or will Ava Paige get her way?’

Based upon the third volume of the Maze Runner young adult book series, written by James Dashner, Maze Runner: The Death Cure was due for a February 2017 release, however, the filming was put on hold last year when the film’s lead actor Dylan O’Brien was hospitalised following a car accident on set. Thankfully, O’Brien has fully recovered, and the film is slated to finally arrive in cinemas 11 months later than planned in January 2018.

Following the events of the first two films, Thomas and his friends have managed to escape from the maze and the evil clutches of WCKD and are working alongside the resistance to bring down the evil organisation. The shift in tone from the original Maze Runner’s sci-fi mystery to the more post-apocalyptic action adventure tone of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials injected a lot of new energy into what could have been a fairly standard young adult series.

Thankfully, once the character’s left the maze the world opened up in a huge way, introducing a ravaged earth, a zombie virus, an oppressive regime, and a rebel movement. Whilst some franchises would struggle to fit all of this into a middle part of a trilogy, the Maze Runner series seemed to take it in it’s stride. Thanks to a cliffhanger ending to that second film, and a delay in production, it’s something of a relief to actually have the final chapter coming out soon.


With an action packed trailer that shows the young cast of the film leading an assault on a moving train, featuring crazy stunts, gunfights, and a helicopter extraction, Maze Runner: The Death Cure appears to be embracing the action aspect of its story. Whilst it would be easy to compare this to the final chapters of the Hunger Games series, the fact that the Maze Runner franchise has a smaller scale to their conflict, and a setting more reminiscent of Mad Max, means that it stands apart from many of the other young adult book adaptations.

With a central mystery that has still to be fully explained, some creative action sequences, impressive visuals, and believable characters (played by some great genre tv and film faces), the Maze Runner series is definitely worthy of attention. If you haven’t delved into this franchise yet because you’re tired of young adult book adaptations, do yourself a favour and go watch the first two films before Maze Runner: The Death Cure comes out, because you’re missing out on a series that impresses in ways that The Hunger Games or Twilight never did.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure will star Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf) as Thomas, Kayla Scodelario (Pirates of the Carribbean: Salazar’s Revenge) as Theresa, Walton Goggins (The Shield) as Lawrence, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones) as Newt, Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) as Harriet, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) as Jorge, Ki Hong Lee (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as Minho, Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones) as Janson, and Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island) as Ava Paige.


Go to Amy's Blog

No comments:

Post a Comment