#MazeRunner #TheDeathCure: Heroism Reviews Alpha
After two fairly decent outings, the finale of the Maze Runner trilogy; The Death Cure, stumbles when it should sprint. Chief among the problems with this film are the logisitics- the "heros" if they can even be called that by the end, survive only by plot holes or contrived plot armor.
The moral complexity of the situation; sure, WCKD is conveniently eebil corpration, but it's because they're trying to maintain a threadbare civilization in a zombie apocalypse after a solar flare wipes out a great deal of nature. Or heros want 'revenge' on a situation that some essentially volunteered for. More good guys are killed by their own hubris-driven mistakes than by the 'bad guys'.
And here's the biggest flaw- the heros only manage to 'win' (if you can call it that, by the end, the 'plucky rebels' have killed millions of innocents, destroyed what may be the last major city, and have reverted to living like primitives while, beyond their lush green borders, there are still likely thousands of zombie-like "Cranks". ) because the villains routinely act with a higher moral standard.
It's said that your heros are only as good as your villains, and by that, they mean that in fiction, you want an enemy that is more canny, powerful, and dangerous than your heroes. Something that they have to struggle to overcome. Your heroes look all the more impressive when their tasks aren't easy. When they seem, at some point, to be insurmountable. And here is where Death Cure gets downright annoying.
The villains are oddly underpowered. Their collossal aircraft have dual rotary cannons with possibly the slowest rate of fire for an automatic weapon since the Puckle Gun. And about as accurate as an old multi-barrel revolver. Where are this thing's missiles? Smoke & chaffe? How can HE rounds be exploding on either side of a racing truck and not flip it from the concussion?
And I say this thing because WCKD, for all their assets, apparently only had ONE of the damned things. In a final, 'climactic' battle as hordes of infected and rebels pour through a breached wall, never at any point are these invaders churned to pieces by close air support. WCKD should own the skies.
Not only that, but in the early train heist scene, the airship corners the heroes' truck, and then lands! A squad of WCKD troopers pile out, only to be captured, and this is primarily becuase they refuse to fire!
Bubbula, listen to me: Your rifles fire these wierd electro-dart nonlethal taser thingies. There's no way in hell you should be the most trigger happy faceless troops in any fictional world. Your armor means even a misfire does you about as much damage as a nerf gun, so when you see a pack of ragged dipsticks out in the middle of nowhere, and the situation looks at all sketchy, shoot first, hogtie second, and ask questions later.
It's really egrigious by the ending, Brenda (Rosa Salazar, soon to be Alita in Alita: Battle Angel) at one point has a passel of immune kiddies in a bus on their way out of the city. They're cut off. WCKD security (police? soldiers?) tell everyone to get out of the vehicle, and only Brenda steps out.
With something in her hand.
A flare gun.
So I've seen enough of Donut Operator's channel to know exactly what it looks like when someone steps out of a motor vehicle with something guin-shaped in their hand.
And here the LEOs have sci fi taser rifles. Shoot the ho.
No, don't let her raise her arm above her waist.
No, don't let her shoot a flare up into the sky.
Yeah, taze her before she attaches the big crane hook to the damned front of the bus & escapes.
No? Well, okay, but you might actually want to pull a lethal sidearm to do something about the Zombies with Rocket Launchers, or something.
For as much action as they put into the film, far too much of it felt inconsequential because the villains were stuck using essentially nerf guns and sub-storm trooper tactics. And when that's your villains, than maybe your heroes victory was earned merely by plot contrivance, not by effort.