Movie Review: Divergent

Divergent came out on March 21^st. Here I shall (attempt) to write a (decent) review on it so that you will (hopefully) know what you're getting into when you (better) go see it. It’s rated PG-13.

Divergent Synopsis:

Divergent is based on the bestseller book Divergent by Veronica Roth. It follows the story of a teenage girl, Tris. She lives in a dystopian world set in futuristic Chicago. When teenagers reach a certain age, they are required to take a test and choose which faction they are to live in for the rest of their lives. Tris takes the test, and chooses her faction. The movie is about her journey through the initiation tests, and the war that’s threatening to break out among the factions.

The Factions:

The factions are different groups of people, you could call them civilizations, who believe that different virtues are the most important.

Erudite – They believe that knowledge is the most important thing in life. They are in charge of the city’s medicine, technology, and they run the schools. Their colors are blue and white.

Abnegation – They believe that being selfless, pure, and simple is the most important thing. They are not allowed to look in mirrors more than a couple seconds each day for fear of becoming vain. Since they are said to help everyone, they're trusted to run the government. Their colors are grey and white.

Dauntless – They believe that bravery, courage, and standing up for people are the most important things. However, their morals have corrupted over time and they are more of daredevils and stunt men. They are in charge of the city’s military, police force, and they guard the fence. Their main color is black, but they wear other dark colors like red and purple, too.

Amity – They believe being kind and gentle is the most important thing. They grow and harvest all of the city’s food and raise the livestock. Their colors are red and yellow.

Candor – They believe in telling the truth. Even if it will hurt someone else, they are never allowed to tell a lie. They are in charge of the judicial system. Their colors are black, white, and a little bit of grey.

These are the symbols of each faction

The Cast:

Shailene Woodley is the actress who plays Tris (Beatrice). She is the main character of the movie. She did a good job encompassing Tris’s kick-butt attitude but also presenting her vulnerability. She also looks quite a lot how I envisioned Tris looking. I was a bit skeptical at first of her since she was the main girl in ABC’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I never watched it, but it didn’t exactly seem like the best quality show. However, I thought she was a superb Tris Prior.

Theo James is the actor who plays Four (Tobias). He is the supporting actor, however he is kind of complex and he is kind of like the second main actor. The chemistry between Theo and Shailene felt exactly like Tris and Four did in the book. They were really funny together and had a great relationship. At first I didn’t like Theo James as Four, but now I love him. I think he’s a perfect Four.

Kate Winslet (probably better known for her role as Rose from The Titanic) is the actress who plays Jenine Matthews, the Erudite leader. She did an excellent job, in my opinion. She was the perfect ‘nice on the outside but not on the inside’ woman.

The rest of the cast was okay. I loved Zoe Kravitz as Christina. However, they didn’t develop Will, Edward, Al, and Peter enough as characters. Plus, the actors for them look like they could be brothers so it was really hard to tell them apart. Caleb was good, I think the actor looked like him and he did a good job representing Caleb. (Even though I hate Caleb for reasons only people who've read Allegiant will understand).

How Accurate It Was:

For those of you who haven’t read the book OR seen the movie, DO NOT READ THIS BECAUSE IT WILL (probably) CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Everything that I could remember from the book was in the movie EXCEPT – the butter knife scene when Peter stabs Edward’s eye out with a butter knife. I was somewhat looking forward to this scene because it really showed who Peter was as a person, it introduced you to Edward, and it showed some of Tris’s personality too.

ALSO! They left out Uriah. His name is on the leader board, but he wasn’t introduced. I think I have a guess as to he might be (the black man who helps Tris into the zip line) but he wasn’t formally introduced.

SPOILERS SPOILERS!

I was really mad when Will died in the book, but in the movie it didn’t grab me as much. Will wasn’t developed enough as a character. He threw in a couple funny jokes here and there, but he wasn’t made as much of a main focus as he was in the book. I think Al's death affected me more than Will's death did, and I don't even really like Al. 

I loved Tris’s mom. They added a scene….SPOILERS!

They added a scene in the movie where Tris’s mom comes and visits her while Tris is in Dauntless that I loved. This scene really showed you who Tris's mom was and I was extremely sad when her mom died. I think I cried. :)

Okay so the Pit wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t as dark and crazy and just pure awesome as the book made it sound.

The fear landscapes. In the book, those scenes were EXTREMELY intense. However in the movie, they weren’t as intense as I would have liked. Also, they were really long and crazy in the book, but in the movie, they weren’t as… fear inducing. It’s a fear landscape for crying out loud!

The factions were perfect though, I may have said a lot of negative stuff above, but everything else was perfect and EXTREMELY well done. Bravo to them!

Profanity/Other Stuff:

There were two usages of b**ch, and I think one usage of a**h**e. There was also a scene of intense kissing and a man pushing a woman against a bed and kissing her. However, she beat him up, so it wasn’t really that bad. >:D (As I said above, it is rated PG-13)

Overall:

I’d say it was a really well-done action movie. The capture the flag game was awesome. There were tons of gun fights and a lot of hand-to-hand combat.  I enjoyed the movie and seeing the book come to life. It was extremely violent! I warned you. 

I can hear people screaming now, “How did it compare to the Hunger Games?!” Well, it wasn’t quite as emotionally exhausting, and it was just a smidge less intense (for me) than the Hunger Games and Catching Fire. But you can’t really compare them because they are two pretty different things.

Rating:

I’d give it, a 8.5/10. It was really well made and it was a thoroughly entertaining (and at parts funny) and awesome movie. Definitely go see it!