The Maze Runner movies have been an enjoyable outlier in the 21st century YA fantasy genre. For two films now they've focused more on action and bizarre mysteries than anything resembling serious melodrama. The heroes of The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials barely have time to catch their breath. Taking a break to pontificate about their feelings is a luxury that none of them could afford… until now.

The third film in the series, The Death Cure, has all the exhilarating action we’ve come to expect from this trilogy but, because it has to wrap everything up, it also gets more personal and dramatic. And that's a problem. The story is ending - heck, maybe even the whole WORLD is ending - and the good guys and bad guys are both wondering about what impact they’ve had and whether or not they’ll ever get closure with the people they love, and none of it works because for two of these films all these characters have been total mysteries. Most of them are amnesiacs, for crying out loud. Amnesia was the perfect excuse to have them run headlong into the next deathtrap without thinking about their personal baggage, but now, too late, they're looking behind them and worried about where their baggage went.

The Death Cure opens with Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Brenda (Rosa Salazar), Frypan (Dexter Darden) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) in the middle of a death-defying train heist, as they try to rescue their captured friend Minho (Ki Hong Lee) from the clutches of the sinister corporation WCKD. The evil leaders of WCKD are using Minho’s blood to cure the Flare Virus, which has ravaged the whole world and killed billions of people, and yes, it’s kind of hard to explain why they’re the bad guys. They’re trying to save more lives than the heroes ever do in this series. They’re just manipulative jerks about it.

Thomas's plan fails, Minho is moved to the last heavily fortified city on Earth, and now our intrepid teen heroes have to find a way to break in, find their friend, steal valuable medical supplies, and then sneak out. And since this is a Maze Runner movie they’ll spend a lot of that time frantically running down hallways, through exploding city streets, and jumping out of windows. As well they should.

Like the first two Maze Runner movies, The Death Cure sends Thomas & Co. running through a series of dangerous obstacles, but for the first time, they’re calling the shots. Ironically, this is one of the main reasons why The Death Cure, though still somewhat entertaining, is the weakest entry in the series. Our heroes have time to plan and their plans are ludicrous, and only call attention to the fact that they’re basically doing everything in their power to prevent doctors from curing a virus that’s killed off most of the human race. What's more, they’re doing it to save characters who made rather little impression over the course of the first two films. Thomas and his friends may be willing to sacrifice everything for Minho and maybe even the traitorous Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), but there’s a very good chance that the audience is more concerned about the whole "stopping the apocalypse" angle, and that’s a major flaw in the storytelling.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure Photos

Plotwise, the Maze Runner movies just plain don’t make sense, dang it. But when they’re free-running through giant labyrinths whilst being chased by mammoth Erector Set spiders, the plot doesn’t matter. When they’re careening through the wasteland pursued by zombies, it doesn’t matter either. Now, the plot and the characters are all they’ve got left and yeesh, was that a mistake. It’s a fallacy to say that mysteries are always more interesting than their solutions, but when the solutions are this dumb, maybe the mysteries should have remained the number one priority.

It’s a shame that The Maze Runner movies are going out on their flattest note, but The Death Cure isn't completely off-key. Wes Ball has directed every entry in the franchise and he’s evolved into a very skilled action filmmaker. Complex set-pieces with an incredible number of moving parts are depicted clearly, excitingly, and with visual panache. Many of the action sequences are even intense and clever enough to elicit triumphant, reflexive giggles at how much fun you’re having. It's fair to say that whenever the cast is getting cardiovascular exercise, The Death Cure, like the other Maze Runner movies, is a hoot. It's when they stop and talk to each other that we realize just how boring they can be.

Verdict

The Death Cure gets stuck with all the loose ends from the other, better Maze Runner movies, and spends too much time wrapping them up and not enough time kicking butt. But the butts that do get kicked get kicked, but hard.