Divergent

The movie Divergent, based on the book by Veronica Roth, was in my opinion not a very good adaptation. The book is about a dystopian society based in Chicago that has been split into five factions that are based on different characteristics that the faction strives for. They are Erudite (the intelligent), Amity (the peaceful), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), and Candor (the honest). Everyone grows up in a faction, but when they turn 16 they choose whether or not to stay in that faction or to switch factions and be disowned by their families. Before they decide, however, they take an aptitude test to tell them which faction they should be in, but they can pick a different one if they want to. Rarely, the test will give them more than one result, and these are the people who are Divergent.

Beatrice Prior grew up in Abnegation along with her brother, an they both decide to go to other factions, he to Erudite and she to Dauntless. The story follows Beatrice, or Tris, as she makes her way through Dauntless training and discovers what truly lies behind the leaders' intentions of all the factions, as well as trying to stay alive long enough to make it into Dauntless.

For the book-to-movie adaptation, I think that a lot of essential parts were left out and many extraneous details were kept in. Many details about Tris's training in Dauntless that were important to the story, like Al's death, Edward and Mia's leaving, and Tris nearly being thrown over the chasm, were left out. Also, all of the details of Tris and Four's budding romance were left out, and it made the love interest feel rushed and sudden. Just from watching the movie, I would have never understood how or when the two fell in love, only that it happened when Four doesn't assassinate Tris toward the end.

Another detail I had a huge problem with was the characters' physical descriptions. Now, normally I don't get very upset when the details don't match up perfectly. After all, we all picture different things when we read the books. But in this book, each character was described in painstaking detail, and there was a reason for it. Half of Tris's fight in the book is being so physically small and having to fight with the other initiates in Dauntless. Shailene Woodley, who plays Tris, does not fit this description at all, and so many of the details that highlighted this struggle for Tris in the book were cut out of the movie, but then, it does not seem so miraculous that such a tiny person could fight some of her bigger competitors, like Molly. Interestingly, Zoe Kravitz, who plays Christina, does have this characteristic, but does not seem to have the struggles that Tris does in the book from being so small. All together, I was extremely disappointed that so much was left out to accommodate the actresses' physical traits.

I think that this movie was incredibly difficult to follow if you had not read the book, and left out so much that it seemed unnatural. The pacing was way too fast and so confusing if you could not fill in the blanks from reading the book beforehand. Overall, I would only give this movie a 2 out of 5 rating, and I think I'm being generous, for the book-to-movie adaptation.