Review of Divergent

Divergent was indeed made to capitalize on the popularity of the Hunger Games book & film series by author Suzanne Collin. Some people might say, it's a total rip-off, but in my opinion, author Veronica Roth was influence by the books and inspiration to make her own. It's no differ, than Suzanne Collins taking elements from previous novels like George Orwell's 1984 and Koushun Takami's Battle Royale. For people to say, Divergent is a total rip-off of Hunger Games is an understatement. If anything, the movie is more influence by novel works like Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart, Orson Scott Card's Ender Games, and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Even the movie takes bit of its story from films like 2010's Inception by Christopher Nolan & Mark Water's 2004's Mean Girls. Other influences come from the Meyers-Briggs personality tests, Milgram experiment, and attitude toward divergent thinking (ATDT). This is a Psychology major fan film. With all this influences, Divergent create its own identify. The movie starts out in a futuristic dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent). Members join a faction based on their preference but are initially given a suggestion by an aptitude test. Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) has grown up in Abnegation, the faction that runs the government, yet has always been fascinated by Dauntless. Every year, 16-year-olds undergo a serum-based aptitude test that indicates the faction into which they would best fit, but something went wrong, with Beatrice's test; as she shows that she has more than one personality trait, meaning that she's a Divergent. Since Divergents can think independently and the government therefore cannot control them, they're considered threats to the existing social order. The premise can be too far-fetched, improbable and illogical. You have to suspense your disbelief on this premise, as it's hard to believe that people can only have one personality trait. Since, it's a Sci-fiction film, anything is really possible. Personally, for a movie that supposedly has a lot of one-dimensional personality characters, these characters really do have a lot of divergent type traits. The pacing is a bit slow, as most of the time, the film focus on her time with the Dauntless. The training kinda did go a little too long. The plot could be a bit confusing, with all the tests, they go through and seeing how some test matter and some don't. The whole exposition somewhat got lost between the transfer from book to screen, as it wasn't that clear to the audience. Seeing how this film is the first one of the 3 books with the sequels Insurgent and Allegiant on their way. This movie will leave you with more questions, than answers, if you haven't read the books. Even if you readt the books, there are some minor different from the book to the film. The dream scenes were a bit longer in the book. Some characters such as Peter (Miles Teller)'s level of bullying is reduced to verbal comments as in the book, he's more engage in sexual abusing, and physical provoke her. Another big missing piece from the book is one of the character getting stabbed in the eye. Hopefully, they can fit that in, the next movies. Nothing too big was change in this film, so it's a fairly well adapted movie. The acting is pretty good for the most part. Shailene Woodley nearly quit acting in 2011, so it's good that she didn't, as she was great as the main lead. Theo James as her love-interest was pretty cool to have. The only problem is that Theo James acting really doesn't stand out. If anything, he kinda could be mistaken for James Franco. The supporting cast made out of Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Maggie Q and Kate Winslet were all great in their own roles. The movie could need some more minority characters. I don't know if it's part of the story, with the white washing due to its being a post-apocalypse or Hollywood just being ethnic bias. After all, the United States seems to be home to large groups of immigrants of many races and ethnicities and they rarely depicted in films like this. Even Hunger Games had more ethnic characters than this. It really doesn't look like people from Chicago. I also would like not everybody looking like a model. It kinda hurts the realistic tone that the film is possible to represent. The movie was shot beautifully by director Nick Berger. The mirror scene alone had some really good symbolism. The music choice was pretty good. My favorite had to be Run Boy Run – Woodkid. I wouldn't say this movie is a chick flick or only for young adults as there is enough material for everybody to relate to. Overall: It's a surprisingly good YA sci-fi action drama thriller adaptation. I'll be looking forward to the sequels.