The Maze Runner: The Death Cure 7 out of 10 2018

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure  7 out of 10 2018

This movie covers the third  book of James Dashner's 3 book series that was adapted for the big screen.

The first movie was basically a Lord of the Flies meets The Cube. (An interesting mix).
Here were my thoughts on the first one.
http://bradgeekness.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-maze-runner-better-than-hunger.html

The second film took things in a different direction.  It was still entertaining and had some great action sequences --but drifted too far away from what made the first film special and being a middle book of a trilogy --the ending was less than epic in nature.

Here were my thoughts after seeing the second film

https://bradgeekness.blogspot.com/search?q=Maze+runner

With the third and final film in the series starts off with an exciting train heist --but then becomes a slow and boring film for about the first hour.  I was starting to worry that like Divergent and Hunger Games this series was going off the rails as well.   All three Dystopian sci fi series were their strongest in their first films in my opinion.  In this final film of the series the goals of the main character Thomas seem to be so small in nature.   Bascially they are trying to break into the Last real city on Earth (protected by large walls) to save Minho who was captured at the end of the second film after Theresa betrayed the group of former Gladers.  

The second half of the film picks up with some good fun action sequences and a character death that is a difficult one for fans of the series.  But the story becomes too typical for this genre in the third act.  I wish the films had been more like the first film and stuck with a more interesting and original story.  The concept of the original film was so fun and fresh that the direction the series went after that left me a little let down.  

This film is basically saved by the action in the second half of the film and a good reflective ending.  I'm glad they were able to bring the series to a conclusion --which can not be said for the Divergent Series and several other movie series that attempted to repeat the box office success of the Hunger Games.   That being said, this was my least favorite film in the series.   I just wish the series had taken better advantage of the possibilities the first film developed.  If you watched the other two films I would suggest watching this to for resolution to the story,  just don't expect anything amazing.

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Spiders 3D 2013 6 out of 10

Spiders 3D  2013 6 out of 10

A meteor crashes through a Russian space station and brings with it a secret government experiment into the subways of New York city.   About 40 minutes into this giant spider movie I was having a Jeff Goldblum moment and was about to ask "You are actually going to have giant mutant spiders in your giant mutant spider movie? ".   The movie gets off to a slow and misguided start as the entire first half of the movie is wasted on a secret government  military experiment storyline that is later dropped.   Yes the government is responsible for the giant attacking spiders and the main characters spend most of the movie trying to escape from the government.   The movie was definitely heading to dudsville even when some big spiders began to show up and there is a cheesy battle between Patrick Muldoon and a spider using a forklift.  Then the stupid scientist that wants to predictable protect the spiders gets killed be them -just like in every movie like this.    The story of the movie never really gets any better as they spend the last half of the movie looking for their daughter in a quarantined zone, but a giant mutated spider does finally show up to wreck havoc on the city.    The giant spider is actually pretty cool and basically single handedly redeemed this movie from being a 4 out of 10  into being a 6 out of 10 as it brought back memories of Ray Harryhausen as it menaced the city causing more damage then the villians in Superman 2.   The Giant spider walked around battling machine gun fire and screaming like Godzilla.   If only the Giant Spider had been in more of the movie to hide its lackluster plot.


What is up with Patrick Muldoon and giant bugs?

This is his third time around running away from giant bugs.   First in the classic Starship Troopers  --in which he doesn't fair so well and then in Ice Spiders  (where he battles them at a ski resort).  Apparently he has never seen a giant bug script he didn't like.

Men in Black 3 2012 9 out of 10

The Men in Black are back in  Men in Black 3 2012   9 out of 10

This time around Agent J  (Will Smith)  has to travel back in time to 1969 after a big bad alien escapes from a maximum security prison on the moon and goes back in time to eliminate his partner K (Tommy Lee Jones).   This of course has big consequences for the Earth as it sets the stage for a full scale alien invasion.  J must go back in time and stop all this from happening.    

Men in Black is a great concept.  It gives you endless possibilities of stories to play around with.  The 2 previous films left me entertained-but wishing for something a little more.  The plots didn't meet the expectations of the amazing world the movies had created.  They left you feeling like there were better more interesting stories to be told in this world.   Men in Black 3 --had probably the most interesting story in the Men in Black world so far.  The time travel aspect worked well and brought Josh Brolin to the series as young K  (which he did a spot on job of).   The peril seemed pumped up a bit from the other movies and the ending was a top notch twist to the franchise. Will Smith once again shines as J.

All in all Men in Black 3 delivered as  a strong entry in the franchise.  It was fun, funny,  and enjoyable action.