Divergent - The Movie
I recently had the pleasure of seeing the film adaptation of Divergent. First of all, I made the rookie mistake of re-reading the book RIGHT before I saw the movie. So the details were too fresh in my mind for a truly objective viewing of the movie. I really try hard to see a movie as a separate entity from the book. The creators essentially have 2 hours to re-create something that likely took the average person a few days to read. Unless the fans are willing to sleep in the theater for the next few days, there is just no way to capture every nuance of the original storyline. Now, Divergent was a really good movie. I feel like they really conveyed the overall feel for the story and (for the most part) stayed true to the characters. Most changes that were made really didn't effect the progression of the original plot either way so the differences weren't really all that important. Shailene Woodley redeemed herself in my eyes from her Secret Life of the American Teenager days and played a convincing Tris. Theo James, although previously unknown to me, was a great Four. The casting was very well done... right down to Ashley Judd as Tris' mom. However, there was one moment in the movie that is still bothering me even though I saw it on Friday. In the book, Tris is going through her fear landscape for her final test as a Dauntless initiate. Her final fear to overcome is having sex with Four. It's an innocent yet real fear that I believe a lot of Veronica Roth's teen and young adult readers would be able to relate to. So why change it? However, the scene was rewritten in the movie as Four basically attempting to rape Tris. I was actually kind of disgusted at this change. First of all, there was no reason for the change. Secondly, this one moment kind of ruins facts we previously knew about Tris and Four's relationship. Tris demonstrates several times that, although she probably should be a little intimidated by Four when they first meet, she clearly isn't. So why have one of her fears be FOUR?! I just don't understand what the point was in making that change as it will not have any impact (positive or negative) on the remaining movies. All that re-write did was serve as a way to show that the screenwriter didn't have a good grasp on Tris' character as written throughout the entire series. For my fellow dystopian YA fans... what did you think of the movie adaptation of Divergent?
