‘DIVERGENT’ Movie Review – Why it was a surprising success?

Mar 29, 2014 by     Comments Off on ‘DIVERGENT’ Movie Review – Why it was a surprising success?    Posted under: Entertainment, Screenplay

The long awaited book to film adaptation of Divergent by bestselling author Veronica Roth has just been released in theatres worldwide and fans everywhere are wondering the same question- was it a just adaptation?. Divergent may have newcomers who are not familiar with the book or haven’t read it yet but it would be right to think that the expectations of those newcomers lineup alongside with the readers. Divergent may not have been that fantastic book to film adaptation that Catching Fire was but with $56 million Divergent manage to surprise this writer.

Being the first book and movie in Veronica Roth’s bestselling Young Adult dystopian trilogy Divergent follows Tris as she decides to leave her family behind in the Abnegation faction for a more exciting life in Dauntless. Along the way she learns that she is Divergent, meaning she can’t fit into one faction but possesses qualities of all the five factions.. But what does it mean, and why does Jeanine Matthews want Divergents to be eliminated from society?

Those who have yet to read this book, this review will help them decide whether it is worth it or not.

The simple answer is yes. Do not turn your nose upon hearing the word ‘Young Adult’. Divergent is an incredibly exciting, fast-paced, uplifting, emotional adaptation of its source material that i think will meet its readers’ expectations. Divergent may not been an entirely accurate adaptation of its bestselling book but honestly though it did exceed my expectations since I was one hundred percent sure that it would turn out to be disastrous. But to my immense pleasure it was mostly if not everything I hoped it would be.
There are always changes when book to film adaptations are involved so naturally Divergent has its own share of changes from the book. It does not entirely coincide with the book everywhere but fans will be pleased to know these changes don’t negatively affect the story unless you’re someone who is paranoid about book to film differences. Which I think anyone rarely cares about.

Some of the most exciting additions include Kate Winslet as Jeanine Matthews. Obviously if you have Kate Winslet you’d want her to appear more often. And the additional scene at the end between Jeanine Matthews and Tris offers an unexpected but thrilling climax that you will not see coming.

If there is one thing I absolutely loved about Divergent, it was the Original Soundtrack. The Divergent OST fit in with the scenes and dialogues as perfectly as a jigsaw puzzle. Ellie Goulding fans will be pleased to hear her most recent album, Halcyon Days, play during the movie’s action packed scenes. It’s rare for more than one song by an artist to be included in a single movie, so it felt strange at times and made us think about the music more than the scene at hand. There was one scene with one of her songs that worked really well.

In a YA book to film adaptation corny lines between the two main characters are to be expected but it just adds to the whole movie experience.

For a general audience who haven’t read the book, there are a few big questions that may hurt their enjoyment of the film because they’re not explained enough. Why is it so important that the city’s population be divided into factions? What happened during the war that left Chicago in the state it’s in? Is the idea of being Divergent truly a threat? Don’t fret if you truly enjoyed the movie I can guarantee you will most definitely be reading the book right now and you will get the answers to all these questions.

The performances by Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Maggie Q, and Miles Teller were brilliant. It’s important for a successful film to kick off to a great start and Divergent certainly did. I would love to see this movie for a second time.

Any time a book series begins its jump onto the big screen, there’s a nervousness and anticipation from the numbers of faithful readers about whether or not it can live up to the expectations set by the book. Can the popularity spawn a film series? We know that Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings including The Hobbit and so many more certainly did. Now can Divergent?
We all know full well that no film can be a one hundred percent accurate adaptation of it’s book and it is actually a good thing when directors, producers and screen writers make a few changes here and there for a wider appeal. But we did see a huge improvement with Catching Fire and hope to see more in the future especially now that Lionsgate has given the signal for the next book in the series, Insurgent, to be made into a movie.

I strongly believe that due to its sudden popularity and readership this dystopian genre is too big to fall. And hopefully Hollywood is learning how to make captivating book to film adaptations suitable to a wider audience one movie at a time.

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