After the war a hundred years ago, society divided itself into five factions with the purpose of creating everlasting peace. Each faction is based on one value – kindness, intellect, honesty, selflessness and bravery.
This society makes its home out of a futuristic Chicago that has been left in ruins. Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) was born into the selflessness faction, Abnegation.
Now that she has turned sixteen, it’s time for her to take the aptitude test that will place her in one of the factions.
Things begin to spiral out of control when her test shows that she fits into three of the five factions, instead of just one, meaning she is divergent. Beatrice has to hide her divergency by choosing a faction and taking on their value completely. At the Choosing Ceremony, she chooses to be brave and leave her family and faction behind to become Dauntless – the faction that values bravery. She takes on a new name, Tris, and tries to blend in in this new faction. In order to officially become a Dauntless, she has to survive their initiation. There are two stages to the training: physical and mental. Her instructor, Four (Theo James), takes a special interest in helping her through training. As the two get closer, they discover a plot to brainwash Dauntless soldiers into killing all the members of Abnegation. Now the clock is ticking – Four and Tris have to figure out a way to stop this.
Based on the bestselling book by Veronica Roth, Divergent is an action-packed and emotional story about choices that everyone can relate to. Fans of the book, myself included, always get nervous when a beloved novel is translated to film, but the essence of the story and characters is still there.
Unfortunately, movies cannot include every single moment from the books because of the time limit, but books and movies also have different paces.
In the book, things are a lot more dragged out, which a movie cannot afford to do without the viewer becoming bored. Scenes that work for the book, but would be slow on screen are incorporated in different ways, so that the whole story is there.
Woodley portrays Tris’ indecision and conflict of which faction to choose. Should she stay with her family or follow her heart and be brave? After transferring to a new faction, Woodley shows Tris’ determination to fit into her new faction. James, who is opposite Woodley, has newly started his acting career, but he was perfectly cast into the role of Four. Very physical, he did all his own stunts, and according to the author, he did so much more with the character than she could have imagined.
He enhances his character and perfectly captures Four’s secrecy and distrust in most people, but he also shows Four’s softer side when he starts to care for Tris.
Everything that makes a movie—music, cinematography, acting, etc—came together to make a great book to movie adaption. Ellie Goulding headed the soundtrack and worked with Hans Zimmer on the score.
The cinematography helped convey the personal story of Tris. Both the music and camera angles convey the emotions of the movie to the audience.
This movie gets four and half out of five stars. The box office sales are doing so well for opening weekend that the producers have decided to go ahead with the next two books. "Insurgent," the second book should be coming out in theatres sometime next year. This movie is enjoyable for everyone even those who have not read the books.
