Movie Review: Divergent

Title:  Divergent
Rating:  PG-13
Director:  Neil Burger
Writers:  Evan Daugherty, Vanessa Taylor, Veronica Roth (author of novel)
Main Cast:  Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort
Seen:  At the theater

Set in a futuristic dystopia where society is divided into five factions that each represent a different virtue, teenagers have to decide if they want to stay in their faction or switch to another - for the rest of their lives. Tris Prior makes a choice that surprises everyone. Then Tris and her fellow faction-members have to live through a highly competitive initiation process to live out the choice they have made. They must undergo extreme physical and intense psychological tests, that transform them all. But Tris has a secret that she is Divergent, which means she doesn't fit into any one group. If anyone knew, it would mean a certain death. As she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, this secret might help her save the people she loves... or it might destroy her.  Summary found here.

My Review:  I've heard so many differing opinions on this movie.  As it is based of a totally awesome novel, many people, including myself, went in with an idea of how everything should look and what needed to happen.  I had high expectations because I knew how wonderful the book was and how amazing the movie had the potential to be.  Thankfully, I enjoyed it a lot!  Although the setting and the actors who played these characters weren't at all how I imagined it while reading, these things can be overlooked because, over all, this movie was a hit!

I would like to just say that I am sorry for anything I said about Theo James not being a good Four before seeing this movie because I was so wrong!  Theo was amazing!  Even though he definitely doesn't look like how the Four in my head looks, I can get over that.  It's impossible to find an actor who looks exactly how everyone pictured a character because everyone pictures characters differently.  But, like I was saying, Theo rules.  You can be Four anytime because you rocked it.  Shailene also rocked it!  I was nervous about her being Tris because she's so nice and sweet looking and I always pictured Tris very average and almost mean looking.  But while I was watching the movie, I totally felt like Shailene was Tris.  She did a fantastic job getting into character and I loved seeing Tris come alive through her! 

The pacing of this movie was great.  I know that it's always really hard to squeeze everything from a book into a movie adaption but I felt like they did a pretty good job with this one.  I would have liked to see more of the first simulation when Tris was taking the aptitude test, but I can live without it.  Everything was so action-packed and awesome!  I was practically bouncing in my seat as I watched!  Seeing Tris kick butt made me want to stand up and start running around and punching things (luckily I have some self control, otherwise the people sitting around me would not have been very happy).  

Divergent is definitely a movie worth seeing.  Even if you haven't read the book, the movie does a fantastic job of explaining the premise and the world we're in so that it's not confusing.  I am so excited for them to start working on an adaption for the second book in this series, Insurgent!