Maze Runner: The Death Cure
| Release Date: January 26, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
25
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJan 26, 2018
There’s a pleasing sort of B-movie-on-an-A+-budget simplicity to Death Cure. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 25, 2018
The Death Cure doesn’t work on every level. The movie has, for the most part, jettisoned many of the story’s previous science fiction elements to focus more on action. In so doing, it relies on a lot of repeat devices to earn its thrills — namely perfectly-timed, life-saving rescues, often from the sky. Sometimes, you just want to hear some scientists talk shop for a minute. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJan 17, 2018
This is the sort of action film where the bad guys often hold their fire for no discernible reason, and are terrible at dodging things, but if one suspends one’s disbelief long enough, they’re rewarded with a rollicking, highly competent popcorn movie. Read full review
70
VarietyAndrew BarkerJan 17, 2018
Downplaying some of the property’s sillier elements when not jettisoning them entirely, and streamlining the narrative into a rousing and at times even emotional action film, “Death Cure” is the most successful entry in the franchise by far. Read full review
69
IGNWilliam BibbianiJan 17, 2018
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. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJan 24, 2018
The runty little brother of "The Hunger Games" has gotten surprisingly proficient in that area of well-produced sci-fi junk where a lot of the dialogue consists of variations on, “Go, go, go!” Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittJan 25, 2018
While the third chapter is certainly entertaining — and quite explosive — it has definitely lost some steam. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJan 25, 2018
None of these characters or their stories is nearly as engaging as the movie’s many gonzo action sequences, though. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 17, 2018
The script is just so-so, but Ball’s directorial eye, clear in the first “Maze Runner” film though largely AWOL in the second, saves the third and final adventure from its own bloat. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJan 25, 2018
Ball and screenwriter Nowlin keep a tight grip on the tone and the relentless pace, but they often back the story and characters into corners that only a deus ex machina can fix. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekJan 25, 2018
The movie’s hero, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), is low-key and likable, though it’s his best pal, Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s Newt, who gets the most dramatic moments. He’s charming to watch, but by this point, it’s futile to wish for a cure-all. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergJan 24, 2018
The director, Wes Ball, knows how to move his camera around a futuristic medical compound, and the filmmaking brio — especially the sights of Earth’s last city, shot in Cape Town — mitigates the eye rolls prompted by the plot. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraJan 22, 2018
This is one teen dystopia that sustained its quality across the trilogy. It may not set the world alight — ironically, given the solar flare that started its story’s disaster — but it 
will get the blood pumping. Read full review
60
Time OutDan JolinJan 18, 2018
Any longer-in-the-tooth fans of gritty sci-fi action will find this maze a little too easy to escape. Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamJan 17, 2018
It’s hardly fresh, but the spectacle is decent and the relationship dynamics absorb just enough to fill the lengthy run time. Read full review
58
The PlaylistWill AshtonJan 25, 2018
For fans of the franchise, The Death Cure is a fairly serviceable finale. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 17, 2018
It’s director Wes Ball who emerges as the real hero here, the former visual effects supervisor proving himself to be the rare filmmaker who can force some genuine vigor into one of these banal modern blockbusters. Read full review
55
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Jan 24, 2018
Chances are that if you’re a big fan of the book series, you’ll be satisfied with this halfway competent but way overlong resolution to the saga. Read full review
55
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJan 17, 2018
The third and final film in the Maze Runner series, subtitled “The Death Cure,” gets it half right as an action movie. The stunts, the explosions and the chases are all exciting and elaborately mounted; there’s just not much of a movie to go with them. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleFeb 1, 2018
Ball’s command of the camera and his ability to hurtle his character through science-fiction realms has visibly grown through the three movies. For too long The Death Cure stays in one place; it’s best when on the move. And now, it’s probably time for Ball to move on, too. Read full review
50
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 26, 2018
As the final act succumbed to dull, apocalyptic formula, I saw an entire sub-genre slip away with it: The Death Cure is a grim, half-hearted farewell to this wave of young-adult dystopias. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 26, 2018
The Death Cure plot is the essence of rehash. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJan 25, 2018
The series’ borrowings often have about them a whiff of playful improvisation, the logic of kids with action figures saying, “And what if then they had to drive into that tunnel from The Stand and it was full of zombies?” As The Death Cure grinds on, though, they become less inspired. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJan 25, 2018
Even Clarkson's work on the intriguingly ambiguous Paige is starting to wear thin this time out; the combination of flat characters, a young cast and a director whose strengths lie elsewhere means that the overall level of performance is painfully low. Read full review
50
Washington PostJane HorwitzJan 25, 2018
Despite a strong cast, striking locations and slick digital effects, the overlong movie lurches from chase to battle to soul-searching quietude — and then back again — in frustratingly generic action-movie style. It’s just one darn thing after another. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 25, 2018
The Death Cure is at its absolute best when something’s getting blown up, or a plan is being hatched to blow something up: Series director Wes Ball is aces with action, and almost as effective with the procedural steps to get to said action. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJan 25, 2018
Director Wes Ball allows nearly every scene to overstay its welcome. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoJan 24, 2018
Where we hoped for a narrative rebound, we get instead another pedestrian, overlong post-apocalyptic entry that fails to capitalize on some decent character dynamics. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 24, 2018
This is the world of Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the third installment in the “Maze Runner” trilogy, a kind of destitute man’s impoverished cousin’s answer to the “Divergent” series. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 20, 2018
Effects guru turned director Wes Ball got great production design and some splendid combat set pieces out of this, and amps up the tension with a nervous, jumpy camera and tight editing. Read full review
42
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 27, 2018
Director Wes Ball frames the film as one long siege on the central city with few exceptions, and while that lends it a certain sense of momentum, after a while the sensation of watching it turns into one of checking off boxes Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 26, 2018
This is at least concentrated dramatically in being brought to an endpoint. For fans only. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJan 24, 2018
Interminable dull stretches blunt the impact of undeniably exciting action sequences, making the series finale unlikely to leave even fans wanting more. Read full review
40
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJan 17, 2018
The thin story plays out in a hail of bullets, zombies and action-laden sequences. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 26, 2018
If I knew definitively what the plural was for the term deus ex machina, I’d apply it here. Rarely can I remember a movie filled with so many miraculous rescues and associated contrivances. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJan 23, 2018
As long as the third and, one hopes, final installment is, it feels even longer. There’s more of it, much more, yet paradoxically, much less. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezJan 17, 2018
Emotional complication is what this film, so abundant in last-minute getaways, fake-outs, and half-hearted nods to the franchise's greatest hits, needed so as to elevate it out of its programmatic torpor. Read full review
25
Original-CinJim SlotekJan 4, 2019
What can be said about series director Wes Ball is that he has a flair for noisy gun and air battles, pyro, fights, destruction, pursuit and escape. But it signifies nothing if there is no plausible reason for pretty much anything that happens. Read full review
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