By Kristin Bivens
I've written movie reviews, but mostly critical reviews where I had to detail every waking moment of the movie, which led to pages and pages of dissection. I'll save you the yawning of that layout as much as I can.
But, bare with me, because I'm not sure how this review of the fiftieth movie I've watched this year is going to go.
Friday night, 9:05 p.m., Niles, Michigan. The local Wonderland Cinema was packed with young and old alike, eating popcorn and waiting for Divergent to begin. I typically try to stay away from Friday night, just came out at midnight the night before, blockbusters, but at Shiny Happy People, we like to be timely with our movie reviews.
If you haven't read Divergent, it is about a world (set in the future Chicago that was ravaged by war) made up of five factions: Candor, Amity, Erudite, Dauntless and Abnegation.
Here's the breakdown of each faction:
- Candor--They never tell a lie.
- Amity--I like to call this faction the "hippies."
- Erudite--Valedictorians.
- Dauntless--The tattooed and, though maybe that's not what they started out as, a bit reckless.
- Abnegation--Plain Janes who only think of others and feed the homeless in Chicago.
When a child turns sixteen, they can leave the faction they were born into or they can stay where they are at forever. Typically, a simulation test provides the kid with some guidance by telling them which faction it looks like they belong to. Surprisingly enough though, they still have their free will to choose a different one if they prefer. Obviously, there has to be some controversy with the main character so Tris is one of those oddballs that just doesn't fit anywhere. She's Divergent, as they call those that don't belong to any specific faction. But the powers that be, specifically those of the Erudite, who have created the simulation tests that are supposed to provide the young kids with answers to choose the rest of their life, aren't big fans of Divergent so Tris has to keep it on the down low. She's not sure why at first. A lot of the story is her trying to figure out just what she is.
When it comes time for her to choose a faction, she chooses Dauntless. They're edgy. They jump off trains. They are not Abnegation, that's for sure. So, she leaves her family and joins a new faction.
Anyways, I should probably get to the movie part now. After all, this is a movie review.
First off, I'd just like to say that no one in the movie looked how I thought they would look. This is probably trivial and perhaps subjective, but both our main character, Tris (Shailene Woodley), and her mother (Ashley Judd) clearly had make up on in the movie and honestly, didn't look plain to me at all. In their faction, Abnegation, you are plain. You only get to look in a mirror every third month. And dang it, I need a mirror to put my make up on! In Abnegation, you do not take care to look a certain way because your life is not about you. In the movie, the women just wore sacks of gray to dress them down and yet had perfect glowing complexions. The guys for the most part played the part, except for Tris' brother Caleb. He had a want to be Edward Cullen thing going on.
In the book, Tris' creates a circle of really close friends when she joins the Dauntless faction, and though we meet those friends in the movie, they just aren't represented very well. But her relationship with Four, the "hunky" Dauntless trainer, is kept at the fore front. Which is all good and fine because that is a vital part to the story, but, the friends she makes at Dauntless are important, too. When one of them dies tragically in the book, you actually feel sad because you know him, you know his situation and he was an under dog you were rooting for. But in the movie, he's just a guy in the background. We know his name and that he may not be the best initiate to the Dauntless group, but that's it. I really didn't feel much of anything when, on the movie screen, they pulled him up from the river he had jumped into.
In a vital part of the book, we find out that Tris' mother isn't all she appears to be. We find this out in the book at "Family Day," when the initiates families can come visit their kids. When you join a different faction than the one you were born into, you typically don't see your family because the faction is now your family. Tris doesn't expect her mother or father to show, as in her mind she betrayed them. But, her mom does come. At first, she asks how everything is going. Then, she leads in to asking what Tris' test results really were. At the end of the conversation, she tells Tris to go see her brother Caleb, who joined the Erudite faction. They are creating some sort of serum in partnership with the Dauntless and Caleb needs to do some research on it, according to his mother. At the end of the conversation, Tris realizes something very important about her mom. She was Dauntless born.
In the movie, this whole scene is not as well done. Tris is loading up sacks of what are probably grains into a truck and sees a flashing light out of the corner of her eye. She goes back to see what it is and surprise! It's her mother, come to see her and hiding behind pallets. She shows up out of nowhere. Gets right to the point of "What were your test results?" She tells Tris not to let anyone know what she really is. And never mentions a word about going to see her brother. Which, honestly, is a pretty important turn in the story. Instead, Tris and Four just stumble upon some Erudite loading boxes into the Dauntless compound and Four whips out this orange serum he stole from a secure Dauntless location. I really did not like the way this was done. In the book, with her mom coming and slowly getting to the point of the conversation, I instantly began to like her mother more and more. In the movie, it was more like "what's she doing there?" You weren't able to establish a connection with her through that scene, not like you do in the book.
The general plot line was solid, though scenes and scenarios were maybe switched around for a more dramatic effect. I appreciated the scenery of a ravaged Chicago. The Tris and Four story line followed just as it should have, though, movies always make the romance cheesy, don't they? Of course Four had to take off his shirt and show his awesome tattoo. But then did they absolutely have to kiss afterward while his muscles glistened for the camera? Okay, I guess maybe they did.
My friend Sarah Braun was my date to the movie and she had this to say, "I enjoyed the movie! I thought the filmmakers did a great job of showing the stark contrast between each of the factions, from their thoughts and actions all the way down to the details of their clothing."
I don't mean to sound like I'm only criticizing the movie, because even if it may not sound like it, I did enjoy watching it, just as Sarah said above. It was an adventure to be sure. But having read the book, I believe it lacked some substance and certain details. But then again, sometimes books don't translate as well to film as we might like. Because if they did, they'd be ten hours long.
In a vital part of the book, we find out that Tris' mother isn't all she appears to be. We find this out in the book at "Family Day," when the initiates families can come visit their kids. When you join a different faction than the one you were born into, you typically don't see your family because the faction is now your family. Tris doesn't expect her mother or father to show, as in her mind she betrayed them. But, her mom does come. At first, she asks how everything is going. Then, she leads in to asking what Tris' test results really were. At the end of the conversation, she tells Tris to go see her brother Caleb, who joined the Erudite faction. They are creating some sort of serum in partnership with the Dauntless and Caleb needs to do some research on it, according to his mother. At the end of the conversation, Tris realizes something very important about her mom. She was Dauntless born.
In the movie, this whole scene is not as well done. Tris is loading up sacks of what are probably grains into a truck and sees a flashing light out of the corner of her eye. She goes back to see what it is and surprise! It's her mother, come to see her and hiding behind pallets. She shows up out of nowhere. Gets right to the point of "What were your test results?" She tells Tris not to let anyone know what she really is. And never mentions a word about going to see her brother. Which, honestly, is a pretty important turn in the story. Instead, Tris and Four just stumble upon some Erudite loading boxes into the Dauntless compound and Four whips out this orange serum he stole from a secure Dauntless location. I really did not like the way this was done. In the book, with her mom coming and slowly getting to the point of the conversation, I instantly began to like her mother more and more. In the movie, it was more like "what's she doing there?" You weren't able to establish a connection with her through that scene, not like you do in the book.
The general plot line was solid, though scenes and scenarios were maybe switched around for a more dramatic effect. I appreciated the scenery of a ravaged Chicago. The Tris and Four story line followed just as it should have, though, movies always make the romance cheesy, don't they? Of course Four had to take off his shirt and show his awesome tattoo. But then did they absolutely have to kiss afterward while his muscles glistened for the camera? Okay, I guess maybe they did.
My friend Sarah Braun was my date to the movie and she had this to say, "I enjoyed the movie! I thought the filmmakers did a great job of showing the stark contrast between each of the factions, from their thoughts and actions all the way down to the details of their clothing."
I don't mean to sound like I'm only criticizing the movie, because even if it may not sound like it, I did enjoy watching it, just as Sarah said above. It was an adventure to be sure. But having read the book, I believe it lacked some substance and certain details. But then again, sometimes books don't translate as well to film as we might like. Because if they did, they'd be ten hours long.
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