By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Sci-Fi/Action

Age Rating/13+

Lemonradar/60/100 “sweet/sour”

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the newest film in the Maze Runner Franchise, Maze Runner: The Death Cure. When Minho is captured by WCKD with many other kids, Thomas, Jorge, Newt, Brenda and the team go to rescue them inside the WCKD complex in the ‘Last Surviving City’ with walls to keep out the Cranks and really a whole other labyrinth with answers which to his fellow Gladers such as a cure and many more reasons to completely destroy WCKD.

How Was The Cast?

Here we go now with the cast, the chosen cast of teenagers which really put the movie at risk in many ways, but is also always helpful to have young actors taking on the leading roles. The main character remains Thomas, the hero of the story played by Dylan O’Brien. I thought that Mr. O’Brien did do a very good, almost exceptional job on executing this very important role to the whole franchise, also I believe that O’Brien is quite brave when he got injured in The Scorch Trials and this very film and still was able to continue the franchise; A good script and directing help the star do a decent job, again before The Maze Runner he was only known for his role in The Internship and after this we know him as the great Thomas in the Maze Runner Series; Really overall Dylan O’Brien really has good talents in this Dystopian Series, with his pleasing appearance, attitude, and the overall character combining that with a decent franchise and solid directing. Next there is Newt who is played by Thomas Sangster. I was really thinking about this, really I just cannot believe how many movies Sangster was in before this with Nanny McPhee, The Last Legion, Love Actually and many many more which really means that Sangster is the most famous of the teens that consist in the cast, but the question is he the best??? Well out of the whole cast no, but on a few standards with his good charm, well constructed character and perfect fit making him not the best, but the best choice for the character of Newt; On the whole Thomas Sangster puts his great and well achieved acting in solid efforts making him another good member of the cast. Though yes I happen to believe that O’Brien and Sangster are good contributions to the cast, all good things must come to an end with side character Teresa played by Kaya Scodelario who was as stiff as a statue in the film; Although Teresa should have been a greatly interesting character, she was poorly done with an awful taste of lines, no passion or good emotion in her acting which makes you think why would they choose someone as daft as Scodelario to play this amazing character and completely turn it into trash giving the role no interesting qualities, again before The Maze Runner Scodelario made her roles in Clash of the Titans, Moon and Wuthering Heights which also concludes that she never had proof that she was really fit for the role of Teresa. Lastly in the cast of teenagers there is Brenda who is performed by Rosa Salazar which did pick up the cast a little by inserting some life and fun. Salazar will be making her new role in James Cameron’s Sci-Fi Alita: Battle Angel continuing her Dystopian taste, she acted in films such as Insurgent, CHIPs and Jamesy Boy, as you can see not the best movies of all time, but she really improved her career with the Maze Runner Franchise giving her all at the very special role of Brenda with her great performance, emotion and script I hope to see Salazar continue her career with this saga as her start. On the whole for a cast of teenagers this really improved the movie as an overall quality, O’Brien is amazing, Sangster is solid, Scodelario is awful and Salazar was fun giving the cast a decent quality.

Quality

The most important paragraph, the telling of the overall quality in the movie adding up all the judgements but first the directing by Wes Ball, was it any good?? For an extremely new director yes this is a solidly entertaining movie, but why did they choose such a new director for a very popular franchise giving this film a weak director was a very big mistake, but some good things did come out of the decision such as the fun entertaining storyline, plot, the cast was mostly spot on and the really creative, inventive Dystopian environment which gives the audience something to think about in this flawed but satisfying conclusion; However some of the challenges Ball faced was the execution of the movie-to-book kind of thing, the film strayed countless times from the book which can be good, but also is one of the problems because you must give the book fans some treasure that reverts back to the original storyline so even though it was cool to go away from the novel, it did end up a little bit of a challenge to get through. The main part to the movie, special effects, CGI everything that matters to the franchise. I thought that the CGI looked much less like a video game and more like a movie which is something that the franchise has been trying to improve and maybe because we have an easier setting and story than the previous two movies with non-robotic creative visuals that give the audience a real Dystopian YA visual of the book which compares from what the fans have been picturing to the real thing, you may know there is improvement in special effects because of it’s growing budget of 62M which means they are investing more in the films true heart and passion which is good and bad, it is good because it is a very pleasing experience to the eye, but they did take some real good from the actual story and plot which can make the film a one trick pony. Lastly the storyline and plot consisting in the depths of the movie. Really there were many pros and cons to this piece of criteria such as the little overuse of special effects instead of smarts, the lack of an amazing plot, although these things did way down the movie it is very common for this particular genre to go off on it’s own and forget about these qualities; But not entirely meaning that The Death Cure still managed to be more focused on emotionality, depth in the movie and even though the plot and story were shaky with it’s bloated running time of 2h 24m, it was still increasingly fun to watch with friends and family. Based on this info the film lands in the percentage range of 55-65% which puts it just at 60% sweet/sour which concludes my score.

Aging ‘The Last City’

The last paragraph consists of my judging on whether this movie is really for the kids or not. First we have the violence of action sequences. There are many explosions, gunshots, emotional deaths, and gruesome zombie like creatures that are infected with a serious virus called The Flare, car wrecks etc.; If your has seen related titles such as The Hunger Games, Divergent or even the previous movies he/she should be fine with the latest installment, but there are concerning things in this movie, the best thing to do is to really know your child's fears or anxieties. Next is any bad language in the film. There are uses of d..k, ass hole, bastard, bull s..t, holy s..t, what the hell and an exclamation of oh my god though it might be a little intense, the language does not stray too much from other YA Dystopian movies. Last we have any sexuality or adult situations in the movie. Really the franchise has kept the sex level to an all time low for Dystopian compared to similar titles, overall if you watch the movies the most you will ever see are some very quick non-passionate kisses between teenagers so you do not need to worry about this section. On the whole as you can see there is lots of violence, some intense bad language and a few kisses on the sexuality side so based on this information I conclude my age rating to be 13+.

Maze Runner Sequel Race

Maze Runner: The Death Cure 60% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials 55% sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Maze Runner: The Death Cure 60% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials55% sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

News Related to Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Maze Runner 3 Tops Box Office With 24.1M.

The Death Cure is Satisfying for Fans.