Sunday, 3 August 2014

Divergent Book & Movie | Review

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD


For those of you who don't know what Divergent is, it is set in a futuristic Chicago and society is divided into 5 distinct factions to keep the peace. Abnegation the selfless, Dauntless the brave, Erudite the intelligent, Candor the honest and Amity the peaceful. At some point, teenagers must choose to either stay in their faction of birth or they could transfer to another. They undergo and aptitude test where they are told which faction they belong to, but Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) receives an inconclusive result because she is Divergent. The story then follows her intense initiation process, a budding romance, friendship, death and so much more that makes a brilliant book and movie. 

I first heard about Divergent through my sister quite a while ago but I didn't take much interest because it just sounded like a copy of The Hunger Games. I went to watch the film in the cinema with my sister not having high hopes and I surprisingly really enjoyed it. Soon after I started reading the book. Though I love the movie, I must say that I prefer the book. I do wish that I had read the book before though, so that I could imagine the characters for myself. 

I was quite disappointed that the movie left so much of Al out but I do understand why because the movie is 2h 20min alone and with the greater introduction of the character, it could have been closer to the 3h mark, which in my opinion, is too long for a movie. I also found that the book has a lot more romance between Tris and Four. In the movie, their relationship had little to no development and it just kind of happened.

The acting in the movie was brilliant. Theo and Shailene did an amazing job with the characters. I thought Shailene was amazing in the scene where Tris's mum dies. I was almost tearing up because it seemed real and was powerful. 

Divergent has been vastly compared to The Hunger Games and reviewed lower rates than it deserves in my opinion. Both movies have a similar theme of the main female heroine overcoming adversity and both have very strong political aspects to them as well.  In my opinion, the movie would have done so much better if the Hunger Games didn't exits. 

All in all, I found Divergent was a really entertaining movie and an even better book. I would highly recommend you read the book as well and the movie.

What did you think of the movie and book?

Sarah x

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