Young Adult Month - Divergent

In the not too distant future, after a disaster takes place

A nerdy guy with Rage Issues, among the last of the human race

He was just a media nerd, he ranted a lot, it was quite absurd

But he was special for some reason, so bad men decided it was Rage Issues season

He’ll star in 3 movies, 4 if we squeeze him dry

He’ll go and join a rebel force, as he’ll slowly lose his mind

Now keep in mind, he’s just a guy, no different from you or me

So, he’ll have to learn how to survive, with the help of YA Movies

Franchise Roll call

Hunger Games

Maze Runner

Diiiiiiiivergent

If you’re wondering how he posts his thoughts, and who he’s posting for

Repeat to yourself, it’s just a theme, and stop thinking any more

It’s Young Adult Month!

We’re apparently going in order of success as we enter the Divergent series

Divergent had 4 movies planned, but the 4^th movie was ultimately scrapped after the 3^rd one failed to deliver at the box office. I wish I could say I was disappointed but having read the books, all I have to say is that they are so f*cking boring!

Released in 2014, the movie made $288m on an $85m budget, making it less successful than the least successful Maze Runner movie. It’s not great news on the critical front either, with a 42% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average score 5.4/10, but it did have an impact with audiences, with a 69% rating and 3.8/5 average score.

After some vague mention of a war, the city of Chicago decided to split itself into 5 different factions: Erudite – those who value knowledge, Dauntless – those who value strength and bravery, Candor who value honesty, Amity – those who value kindness and Abnegation – those who value selflessness and currently run the government

Tris Prior is an Abnegation born initiate who undergoes a test to decide her true faction. Because she’s too busy looking at herself in the mirror, and lacks context of why she’d need a weapon, she ends up being told she’s Divergent, someone who fits into many factions. She’s told she needs to hide this fact as people would be willing to kill her for it.

During the ceremony where she can choose her faction, she’s surprised to find her brother, who she always saw as selfless choose Erudite as his faction. She chooses Dauntless and is soon whisked away to the Dauntless compound. There it’s revealed that only a top selection of candidates can remain Dauntless, and that will be decided through tests of skill and courage. She meets Four, he trainer who she’s quickly smitten with. And if you find that potentially discomforting, you’re not alone.

Though initially weak, Tris gets stronger and passes through the physical stage of training. She seems to excel at the mental stage, passing through serum induced fear hallucinations but soon the danger of her divergence becomes clear. Somehow, and they never really make it clear why in the books either, being divergent gives you a level of resistance of serums, in the case of the fear simulations she’s self-aware and can manipulate the environment around her.

This comes in useful as Erudite and their leader Jeanne Matthews has arranged for all the Dauntless to put under a simulation and used as her army to attack Abnegation and claim leadership for herself.

As an adaptation, this is a fairly faithful affair, there are a few details changed for the worse but ultimately nothing that derails the narrative Veronica Roth had in her book and to my eternal relief they’ve managed to condense some of the more boring scenes so there’s more narrative drive. I swear, each of these books should’ve been 200 pages shorter.

They manage to sell Tris as the semi-reluctant hero, in no small part thanks to the brilliant performance of Shailene Woodley, I have no real complaints about any of the casting really, but it’s Shailene who gives the standout performance here.

I think the look of the area is pretty spot on, the colour motifs, the lack of railing in the Dauntless compound, the pit, and Tris’ and Four’s fear landscape are all pretty spot on to how they’re described in the book.

The only narrative fault I can give it (aside from it being a less interesting Hunger Games ripoff) is way Tris seems to give up at one point and go see her brother in another compound. In the book, she was told to deliver a message to him from her mother, who makes this speech in a better context than in the book. Family visit day in a society with the manta ‘faction before blood’ was stupid.

One deleted scene that they probably should’ve kept in is the part where Edward gets stabbed in the eye by Peter, this leads to Edward have to leave the compound. He just disappears in the main cut of the film.

The worst part of this film though is the action. Not quite as incomprehensible as the first Hunger Games but we’re looking around that level. The editing is not great and I find it difficult to work out what they’re shooting at any given moment.

Divergent is a loyal enough adaptation of the book that I’d recommend it to the fans, but one standout performance doesn’t compensate for narrative and pacing that, whilst worse in the book, are still prevalent in this over 2 hour long film.

Rating 50/100