Movie Review: Divergent – Don’t Fall in Line

My theme for the past two weeks has been fearlessness. For the past month I’ve been working on my public speaking skills. Next week is my first speech in front of a small group of people. I’m not really fearless, but my speech is about all that I do in spite of my fear – like zip lining, public speaking and international travel. After all, who doesn’t like a bit of an adrenaline rush every once in a while?

Tris Prior longs to be fearless like the Dauntless she follows and watches at school. She wants to know what it’s like to jump from a moving train, to climb the side of a sky scraper or zip line through the cityscape of Chicago.

When an aptitude tests finds that her personality is a match for the Erudite, Abnegation and Dauntless communities, Tris seizes her opportunity to change from the Abnegation community she grew up in to the Dauntless community she’s always wanted to be a part of. But this choice may end up being a fatal mistake because only the Divergent can test positive for more than one community and the Dauntless are notorious for getting rid of their Divergent population.

When Tris and here instructor Four discover a conspiracy between the Dauntless and Erudite communities to overthrow the Abnegation-run government, it’s too late to save their friends from being brainwashed into helping the cause. Worse yet, some of the Dauntless are actually on board with the plot believing that the Abnegation may have been overcome by corruption.

Now the fate of this post-apocalyptic world may lay in the hands of the Divergent like Tris who seem to the only ones immune to the brainwashing of the Erudite and corrupt Dauntless. Problem is, with their home overcome by the enemy that is now actively hunting and kill off Divergent, where can the Divergent go to seek refuge?

This is a pretty simple synopsis of the storyline. To see a more in depth look at what this movie is really about, I invite you to check out the book review.

As for the movie review of Divergent, let’s start with what worked really well:

Shailene Woodley – Woodley definitely exceeded my expectations with her role as Tris Prior. The only other movie I’ve seen her in is The Descendants and I wasn’t impressed with her character, so I was skeptical she could pull it off in Divergent. But Woodley really embraced this character and showed the depth of character that could be portrayed through acting. I loved her attitude when people challenged her that she didn’t have the gut to shoot them.

Sound Track – Cannot complain about the sound track at all for this movie. The music was chosen perfectly for each scene and kept the mood of each scene right in front of us. We felt freedom, intimidation, fear and awe as the music in the background moved us to stay in tune with the action on the screen.

Chicago scenery – Loved the portrayal of Chicago and the way they used the L to connect the Dauntless to the rest of the city. It looks so amazing with Lake Superior all dried up into a meadow. I was floored by the scene.
Faction Fashion – Can I say enough about the faction fashion for this movie? I loved it. I think Abnegation was a little extreme in their simplification of fashion. Maybe they just wore gray slacks and gray t-shirts. Most of the Abnegation seemed sloppy in their dress. I envisioned them being neat, but nothing special. I can’t wait to see the second movie so we can more of the fashion from Amity, the most colorful of the factions. Candor, by the way, was my favorite. They went so far with the basic black and white wardrobe. I was impressed.
Zip Lining Scene – I’ve been zip lining and the majority of the time you go from one platform to another until you reach the lowest point. But what would be the fun in that for the Dauntless? The zip lining scene made my stomach roll as I watched Tris go from the top of a Chicago skyscraper all the way to the ground. OMG, I was on the edge of my seat for that scene.

The day the movie came out, there was a trending hashtag #divergentmoviecomplaints. As promised, I’m addressing these complaints now. Here are the top 7 complaints from viewers from Twitter.

#1 Complaint: ‏@KaylaHopkins8 Still pissed we didn’t get to see Edward get his eye ripped out… #divergentmoviecomplaints

Poor Ben Lamb. His portrayal of Edward in the first movie never made it off the cutting floor. We see him name on the ranking board and Eric calls his name first for Capture the Flag, but never actually see him unless it’s in a crowd of newbies, almost like an extra. Worse yet, we didn’t get to see Peter take out his eye and get him sent to the Factionless. This was a big miss for the Divergent book fans.

‏@cozy_afternoon  Tris was also supposed to drown to death before saved by her mom, right? #divergentmoviecomplaints

This was a big miss for me personally. How much more lame was it that Tris’ mom just happened to be sitting outside the house in the surrounding treeline waiting for her to come by. Big miss for me on this one.

@hawaiibelieb  You know if you don’t tell us that Christina and Will like each other it makes them practically useless #divergentmoviecomplaints

This is totally true. Why do we care that Tris killed Will. Yes, Will was a friend, but she didn’t seem too attached to him in the Dauntless Headquarters. Oh wait, for those of us who read the book we remember that Will is dating Christina who happens to be Tris’ best friend. While they show a little hand-holding towards the end of training between Christina and Will, I don’t think the foundation of their relationship was well established like in the book.

‏@AlyLoverin  To the directors of #Divergent, ever hear of character development? #divergentwasawful #movies #divergentmoviecomplaints

Specifically I’m thinking about Al, played by Christian Madsen. Two things, Al was also Abnegation and he had a total crush on Tris and was heartbroken when things developed between Tris and Four, played by Theo James. People who only watched the movie may have been confused as to why Al took the discovery of his attack on Tris so seriously. After all, the competition was meant to be cut-throat, right?

‏@LuvAndH8t  Cute Four and Tris moments were changed or skipped. No drunken flirty Four. No sex talk. No “six & four” line! WHY #divergentmoviecomplaints

There were a few misses when it came to the development of the relationship between Tris and Four. In the book, the relationship developed over time. In the movie, things happened very quick and a lot of the cute little scenes from the book – like the drunken Four – was taken out. Because the movie was pretty short, I don’t think it was a time thing. I think the director may have been trying to avoid the stereotypes that were attached to Twilight. The focus of this movie was more on the action and less on the character development and relationship development. My thoughts are this was a purposeful decision to try and see if they could differentiate from the pack.

‏@loveamberjoy  They could’ve fit Uriah into the movie. I mean c’mon! Even just a quick little hello would’ve been nice! #divergentmoviecomplaints

For those of you who missed Uriah, he may have been there, although not with a named or credited role. There was a Dauntless-born initiate that invited Tris to go zip lining and this was Uriah in the book. That being said, Uriah’s major role doesn’t come until book two. This goes for Marlene, Shauna and Zeke too. So no worries, we’ll see them soon enough.

@selfiesforfood: Since when was Jeanine and the Erudite there when Tobias tried to kill Tris? #DivergentMovieComplaints

A friend of mine complained about this to me after she saw the movie too. The thing is, my boyfriend and I were talking about this. I told him how it happened in the book, and he said it may not have translated well on screen. I could see this. I’m not a big fan of creative liberties that are completely outside of the book, but this one fit well into the story so I’m not going to throw that big of a fit.
My one complaint that no one even mentioned? How much smaller is Zoe Kravitz (who plays Christina) than Shailene Woodley? It was a total miss for me because Tris is supposed to be the smallest person in Dauntless training, but instead they emphasis was on her meekness compared to the others.

Overall, I loved this movie. I actually thought it was a decent adaptation. Makes me wonder how much input the author had, because certain things I may have fought for if I was in her shoes. However, otherwise this movie was a slam dunk and I’m looking forward to seeing Insurgent come 2015. 3 of 5 stars!

What did you think of the Divergent Movie?