Take The Hunger Games, add amnesia and a dash of Lord of the Flies, and what do you get? You get The Maze Runner, from 20th Century Fox.
As transparent as Hollywood is at trying to capitalize on successful films and trends, they’re 10 times more transparent when that successful film is aimed at kids. These idiots probably weren’t even alive to see what we’re ripping off, producers think to themselves, smugly feeding each other cocaine. First there was Twilight, then there was The Hunger Games, which was basically a smarter person’s attempt to cater to the Twilight audience. That worked, and now the YA (young adult) market is HOT HOT HOT! Thus we get Divergent, where literally the only thing I know about it is that it might be the next Hunger Games, or so the marketing department keeps reminding us.
Well move over, Divergent, because now we have The Maze Runner, which is sort of like The Hunger Games and Divergent. Think I’m painting with too broad a brush here? This is is the first sentence of the book description on Amazon:
Read the first book in the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series, perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent.
I always enjoy it when advertising tells you what type of person you are before describing the product they’re selling. Anyway, here it is, the trailer for The Maze Runner, which is the next Divergent which is the next Hunger Games which was the next Twilight.
Thomas awakens in a dilapidated elevator with no memories except for his own name. The elevator deposits him into a strange place called The Glade – a large outdoor space surrounded on all sides by 150 foot walls of solid stone, and inhabited by 50 other boys who have lived there for the past 2 years all with no memory of how they got there or who sent them. Every morning the walls move apart to allow the boys out of the Glade and into the enormous and complex MAZE that stretched for miles and miles with no clear end or escape. At night the walls seal the boys inside the Glade and protect them from the vicious Grievers – insect like creatures who prowl the maze and attack anybody unfortunate enough to get stuck in it overnight. [IMDB]
The Maze Runner motion picture starring Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Will Poulter, and Aml Ameen hits theaters September 19, 2014!
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. [Amazon]
That message? “YOU ALL HAVE COOTIES NOW.”
Boom. Anyway, I’m a big Thomas Brodie Sangster fan, and I know me and the rest of Sangster’s Gangsters will be there opening day.