Divergent

Y.A. books happen to be a major guilty pleasure of mine. Look, I read pretty heavy books too, so every once in a while I like to sit down with a book that doesn't make me think too much. Plus, let's face it, I'm really a 14 year old girl deep down inside and I love the strong females and the love triangles and the mysterious cute boys. Okay?? So, yes, I read Divergent. And, yes, I loved it (at least the first and second books... the third was a bit disappointing). That being said, I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about the movie being made. I loved the casting decisions but my expectations were admittedly low. There were a lot of things in the book that I wasn't sure could transfer well too the screen. Turns out, I was mostly wrong, because the movie version of Divergent is pretty damn good.

Divergent takes place in the future in Chicago. Post-war, a fence was built around the city and citizens were separated into five factions based on character traits. When you come of age, you get a Choosing Ceremony where, after taking an aptitude test, you decide what faction you will spend the rest of your life with. If you choose to leave the faction you were born into, you will never see your parents again. So, when our lead character Tris takes the aptitude test and it comes up inconclusive, she discovers she is divergent, which is dangerous because the leaders of the community don't want people who don't conform. She tries to hide her result and leaves her selfless Abnegation factor to join the brave Dauntless. The first half of the film is all about her training as she goes from being weak and meek to strong and kick ass. The end of the movie sort of loses steam a bit, although the action sticks fairly close to the book (it does almost completely change the ending).

For the most part, Divergent is a pretty action packed, intense film. Sure, a lot of the things that are plain and clear in the book don't necessarily get explained very well in the movie. (I saw it with my boyfriend, who didn't read the book, and had a lot of questions afterwards... mostly a lot of "well, why?" sorts of questions.... The "why" of the situations are explaining much better in the book). But, the movie does benefit from having a pretty great cast of actors including star Shailene Woodley as Tris. She manages to make Tris feel like a real girl. My problem with Katniss in The Hunger Games was always that she doesn't feel real, and she never gets her hands dirty. Sure, bad things happen all around Katniss, but mostly other people take care of things for her. Katniss is a great role model for girls if you like your role models simple and clearly defined. Tris is much more complicated. She does a lot of bad things, and she isn't always likable. Plus, she spends most of the second book racked with guilt over things she does in Divergent (another problem with the movie, they didn't take enough time to develop character relationships so that you can understand why she'll be so guilt-ridden in the next movies). Also, Katniss just is strong. Tris starts out weak and has to work her butt off to become strong. But Woodley takes this complicated, kick ass character and makes her feel real and lived in. She's going to be a huge star and she totally deserves to be.

The rest of the cast mostly succeeds with their characters. Theo James, who is so good looking I think he might be photo-shopped, plays love interest / trainer Four and he and Woodley have great chemistry and most of their scenes are tension filled and intense. Kate Winslet is super under-used as Erudite leader Jeanine Matthews but she does what she can with the ice queen role. My biggest disappointment is with Miles Teller and the role of Peter. It's not Teller's fault. I thought Teller would absolutely kill this role, but someone somewhere thought it was a good idea to turn his character into mostly just a loud mouth fast talking troublemaker. In the book, he is much more than just a smart ass bully. He's a borderline sociopath, which makes him much more dangerous and untrustworthy and gives his character a lot more depth in the sequels. They also managed to cut out his most intriguing story line (and I don't want to spoil anything but the character of Edward, who is merely mentioned in passing here, plays a pretty big role in the future). MVP goes to Jai Courtney as Dauntless leader Eric. He may look like a punk rock Macklemore, but his take on the troublesome, fierce leader is absolutely wonderful. He steals every scene he is in with a mixture of menace and dark humor. I wanted more and more even though his character lives on the outskirts of the main story line.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with Divergent. It's not going to win any awards, but it's probably forty minutes too long (although there were elements cut for time that probably should have been in the film), but it was fun and thrilling. I'm glad it did well at the box office because I'm excited to see the sequels on the big screen. And, who knows, since they took so many liberties with the final act of Divergent (and they mostly worked), then maybe they can fix the major problems with Allegiant, as well.

Grade: B-