The popular young adult novel “Divergent” hits the big screen
Mary Humphreys
Webmaster
The movie adaptation of the best selling young adult novel, “Divergent” came out on Friday March 21, 2014. Many people of all ages, especially fans of the novel, were highly anticipating the new film. Currently, the movie is getting a range of mixed reviews, and here is another one to add to the mix.
“Divergent” follows sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior (played by Shailene Woodley) who lives in a dystopian world where society is divided into factions based on personality type. The movie opens on the day when Beatrice gets to pick whether she stays with her old faction or switches to a new one.
The movie itself was very entertaining. It was done well; anyone could follow the film without having read the novel. There was a lot of action to keep people entertained, but also a lot of scenes to tug at viewers’ heartstrings. Woodley was able to show off her impressive skills as a young actress in some of the more emotional scenes, truly adding to the drama and emotional appeal of the film.
One complaint though is that, even though the romance was done well and stayed true to the original novelisation on the characters, the love plot seemed overly rushed. Beatrice, who changes her name to Tris part way through the book, and her love interest, Four, seem to fall in love much too fast, and their relationship does not seem to build up too much, it just sort of happens.
Of course, when any beloved novel becomes a movie, there are always people that complain about the adaptation. In “Divergent”, of course there are differences between the two versions of the story. However, considering the fact that in any movie adaptation of a novel, some things have to be cut or changed slightly to make the movie possible, “Divergent” was a very good movie adaptation. True, not everything was exactly the same, but the movie portrayed the important scenes perfectly, and stayed true to the novels’ characters, overall plot, and themes.
Overall, “Divergent” is sure to be a hit with people of all ages, whether they have read the book or not. My Rating. ⅘ stars
Eagle Era 