In the past few years, many young adult novel series have attempted the dangerous and often self-destructive feat of moving from the page to the big screen. This is no easy task seeing as the story is often cut to stay within time constraints, a blasphemy that disappoints fans of the books and results in criticism of Hollywood’s interpretations of some of their favorite stories. Sagas such as Twilight and The Hunger Games are among those that have fallen short of the mark in movie form, and unfortunately “Divergent” was no different.
Based on the dystopian world created by Veronica Roth, “Divergent” is a tale of a girl who does not quite fit in to any of the virtue-based factions in her society. The concept of people being divided by choice into factions seemed to me to be the equivalent of high school’s stereotypical cliques (jocks, nerds, hippies, etc.) portrayed in almost every teen movie.
Through breathtaking cinematography, a destroyed Chicago was portrayed from various perspectives. In one of my favorite scenes, the main character, Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley), flew through the urban setting at night via zip line.
Aside from the film’s stunning visual impact, there were obvious shortcomings. Passages of critical dialogue from the text were lost in translation, which in turn led to Tris being tougher than the book made her out to be. Scenes that should have been kept as detailed as they were in the book, such as Tris’ conversation with Four (Theo James), after her attempted murder, and the bonding experience between Tris and Christina (Zoë Kravitz), would have led to more meaningful character development, something the movie lacked.
I also felt that Theo James was not right for the part of Four. He did not come across as the brave and compassionate leader from the book, but rather a daunting, closed-off authority figure to all but Tris.
Another disappointing change was the fact that the “fear landscapes” were wrong. In the book, fear landscapes are meant to reflect a person’s greatest fear and can only be escaped when the participant faces his or her fear. In the movie, Tris has to find a way to fight her fear despite knowing that it wasn’t real. Although this change created suspense, I did not agree with the change.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars: The casting of Theo was poor and changes made from the book took away from the overall story. Still, it was beautiful cinematically and the message of the film resonated with the audience as the closing credits began to roll.