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The Maze Runner Overview: If you haven’t heard of The Maze Runner yet, I would be surprised. The youngadult book The Maze Runner by James Dashner, is a story about a group of teenage boys who find themselves trapped in a grassy clearing in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a concrete maze with huge high walls. The group works together to support themselves and find a way out of the maze, even though it contains tons of unknown information. Everything changes when a boy named Thomas arrives.
The book is one of many that have been turned into a popular action packed movie, and has many fans following it. It’s similar to popular novels that have been recently turned into movies, such as The Hunger Games and Divergent. They all follow a popular theme, teens faced with a tragic situation with a little romance thrown in. In the next pages we talk about The Maze Runner, along with its theme and more.
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Maze Runner Movie Success Although nothing will top the famous Harry Potter series or The Lord of the Rings series, The Maze Runner did sell incredibly well as a movie making an estimated $32.5 million and was first place in the box office in the first opening weekend. The movie did so well, a sequel was immediately signed and is set to release in theaters soon. The film was so good it got an A- review on a site called Cinema Scores. Overall, the movie made 340.8 million dollars.
Maze Runner Feedback Thousands of people enjoyed The Maze Runner as book, and now the book is available almost everywhere, Amazon, ITunes ibooks, Barnes & Noble’s, Indiebound, Bam and more. Even though the exact number of copies sold of the maze runner can’t be found easily, you can find tons of reviews all over the internet about how they loved the book. The movie however, did not have the same positive feedback, due to the stuff left out from the book, receiving a rating of 69% of the audience liking it on popular website Rotten Tomatoes and a rating of 6.9/10 from popular movie website Imdb , because of the many changes and plot holes.
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The Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, Similarities? If you haven’t guessed it already by the
place /society to live, and comes from the Greek
obvious picture above or the mention of the theme in the intro, the similarity I’m about between all these movies isn’t the fact that they all have made millions of dollars, or that they all have thousands of teenagers voting them as the best movie of the year, it’s that they all share a similar theme. It’s an obvious observation but it’s also an important one. All the famous movies marketed at teenagers these days have this theme. So now you’re
roots dys- bad and topia – place to live. Nowadays Dystopian literature is societies or worlds talking that have been destroyed and or are in horrible conditions, such as a government taking over everything or a world destroyed by horrible unexpected weather conditions. In addition to this theme, all these novels include teenagers as their main characters, trying to survive and fix the condition that they are in. These novels also have a common theme of people in a higher power, either because of wealth or status, taking control of everything, resulting in a rebellion in the
wondering, what IS this theme? The theme they all focus on is dystopia. What is dystopia? Dystopia is an awful
“lower” people. The reason they are popular among teens may be because it’s about young people taking a stand, no matter the consequence.
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Strong Characters, Strong Messages?
If you have ever seen an awards show, you’ve noticed the screaming fans and the levels of volume determined by who just came on the stage or walked by. Why is that related to these characters you ask? The reason why I bring this up is that the actress/actor who plays as these characters, especially Jennifer Lawrence (who plays Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games). She is one of those actresses who make the crowd scream as soon she steps on the stage or even just walks by due to her success in the film. But why?
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In order to discover what makes these characters special and loved, you would have to look deep into the moral messages they portray and then it is easy to discover why they are loved. For example, Katniss Everdeen the main character in The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins , is a girl of lower status, who bravely volunteers herself a tragic event to save her sister which is created by the government, The Hunger Games. In the series, she wins the hunger games, and then helps to rebel against the government that has created it, making her a powerful female icon. In Divergent and The Maze Runner, there are also similar characters, both of them are thrown into a situation, and they both find a way to change it in order to save them and the others around them lives. All these characters display the same character traits, traits such as: bravery, courage, and empathy. They are able to fight for what is morally right, even when they are afraid of what might happen to them, even when success is not guaranteed. Even in the maze runner, when there were tons of monsters outside an exit, they still fought their way out. They are all young people who care about what is happening around them, and want do something instead of sit back and watch what is happening like they are expected to do. In a way they are all what people aspire to be like: someone who can fight for what they believe in and win.
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Sources
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Sources – Links http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_maze_runner Rottentomatoes.com,. 'The Maze Runner'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
http://issuu.com/home Issuu.com,. 'ISSUU - Digital Publishing Platform For Magazines, Catalogs, And More'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
http://hype.my/movies/fun-facts-unlock-the-secrets-behind-the-maze-runner/ Hype.my,. 'Fun Facts: Unlock The Secrets Behind “The Maze Runner” | Hype.My'. N.p., 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
http://jamesdashner.com/books/ James Dashner,. 'Books'. N.p., 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
http://www.ew.com/article/2014/09/21/box-office-report-maze-runner-reaps-32-5-million-ina-successful-debut Ew.com,. 'Box Office Report: 'Maze Runner' Reaps $32.5 Million In A Successful Debut | EW.Com'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
http://libraryschool.libguidescms.com/content.php?pid=325261&sid=2662137 Stewart, Catherine. 'What Is Dystopian Literature? - Dystopian Literature For Young Adults - Libguides Sandbox For Library Schools At Springshare'. Libraryschool.libguidescms.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-hunger-games/themes.html Sparknotes.com,. 'Sparknotes: The Hunger Games: Themes, Motifs & Symbols'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
http://www.livemaguk.com/why-dystopian-ya-is-popular/ Live Mag UK,. 'Why Is Dystopian Fiction So Popular?'. N.p., 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
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