By: Lily Hefner –

What started out as The Maze Runner trilogy, written by James Dashner, is now a full blown movie series. Maze Runner: The Death Cure, directed by Wes Ball, was released on Friday, Jan. 26. This last installation of the trilogy has strong uprising themes and brings another kind of action to the big screen. This movie had me covering my eyes, yet still peaking so that I wouldn’t miss anything. I would indeed spend two and a half hours watching this movie again.

The whole premise of this movie is that an illness is taking over the population of the world and turning them into bloodthirsty zombies. However, a special kind of people are immune to the illness. In order to stop this illness, the government, otherwise known as WCKD, is trying to find a serum to cure it by examining and extracting the blood of the immune individuals. A group of young people, led by Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), embarks on their hardest mission yet. They are attempting to sneak into the last city and rescue one of their friends being held captive. In order to do this, they must face many challenges and extremely intense fights. I would not recommend this movie if you dislike action or might get squeamish when it comes to blood and disease.

This finale opens with cars chasing a train in order to liberate 40 kids being held captive. It intrigues you and makes you want to keep watching the entire movie. I really appreciated the adrenaline rush right out of the gate. Some questionable events involving main characters in the end leave you wishing that wouldn’t have happened and confused about how you feel. I wish some of the loose ends could have been tied up in a better way. O’Brien plays his character Thomas very well. He shows that his top priority is friendship and that he would do anything for his friends. The movie was two and a half hours long, yet the plot moved along at a good pace. I think that the director had a lot of ground to cover which is why it was so long.

I would recommend seeing the first two of the trilogy before you decide to go see this one because you need to know background on the plot and characters to fully enjoy the movie. However, there is no need to read the books to enjoy the movies, although it might enhance the experience. The Death Cure is rated PG-13 for good reason and I would only suggest this movie to mature audiences.

I would rate Maze Runner: The Death Cure overall a B.