Divergent

 Hey everyone, I'm your faithful film freak and I'm currently lacking in the sleep department. I won't bore you with the details as to why I didn't get any sleep last night Of course, it didn't help that my brother was in town and he decided to wake me up. Let this be a lesson children, running on less than 2 hours of sleep isn't fun.


Say, are you in the mood for another young adult oriented film set in a fictional dystopia starring attractive young celebrities? I know I sure am. Because “The Hunger Games” has proved to be a worldwide success, other YA books are being adapted into film. However, having seen several of these movies, they're starting to blur together. I think it's great we have young female heroines for girls to look up to. Katniss Everdeen is our Mockingjay, showing us that we can make a huge impact on the world, even if we are just one person. Hermione Granger from Harry Potter taught us that brains as just as sexy as beauty.


Now we can add Beatrice “Tris” Prior to the list.


Well...I didn't exactly see her as a heroine. Sure, she's young and brave and ready to face all her new challenges but overall, she bored me. Her attitude is wishy washy at best. She can't seem to make a decision until she's absolutely forced to. Like, when her test results prove to be Divergent (which is actually bad in this world) she cannot choose her faction.


Let me spoil this real quick. In this version of a war torn Chicago, everyone is divided into factions in order to keep the peace. We have Abnegation, the selfless, Amity, the peaceful, Erudite, the intelligent, Candor, the honest and Dauntless, the fearless. Tris is in Abnegation but she's bored, questioning why she has to always be selfless. She can't even appreciate what she has because she can't seem to accept that she's Abnegation. So when the day to choose her faction comes, she goes back and forth between Dauntless and Erudite. It's not hard to guess what she picked if you've seen the trailers. Even after she joins her new faction, she questions everything.


I will give Tris some credit. She is determined. Even when everyone doubts her, she practices twice as hard as everyone else. Plus, I really like Shaliene Woodley. I see great things for her in the future and I am looking forward to seeing her performance in “The Fault In Our Stars”. I have yet to read that book but I picked up today. I did read some of “Divergent” and to my surprise, it isn't too bad. Ironically, the pacing of the text is extremely fast so it feels like everything happens in a matter of hours instead of days. It was almost dizzying for me. The film, however, is agonizingly slow. I get that you have to add in the exposition but you can leave some things out.


Let me side track for a moment. I want to talk about Four and yes that's his name in the movie. He's not bad looking. I actually thought it was Dave Franco at first but its not. It's Theo James, someone I know nothing about. I basically have no idea who any of these people are, save for Kate Winslet. Before this, I didn't even know who Woodley was, so this movie came as a pleasant surprise. She's actually good. As for everyone else, sorry, you're not memorable. I know Zoe Kravitz plays Christina, who ends up being Tris's best friend. She is a source of humor and mild comic relief but as with everyone else, lackluster.


Don't think I hated this film because in all honesty, I am indifferent. It wasn't great but it wasn't a failure. It knows its target audience and catered to that crowd. Speaking of the teenage audience...I have absolutely no shame in the fact that I yelled “Shut the hell up!” at you. I don't know why you felt it necessary to freak out when Four took his shirt off. He's not cute. And I'm too old for your crap. You should also know better than to cheer and whoop like that. Shame on you and shame on your chaperones for not stopping it. We were in a packed theater, so thank you for distracting everyone.


Also, woman who took a picture of her food, in the dark WITH FLASH...I don't care how good it looked, Instagram can wait.


Anyway, here's my main issue with “Divergent”. The book has some really interesting scenes where people are learning to train or they're getting to know each other better. The film plays the romance up so much. It dominates the film to the point where the main plot gets lost at times. Like, in the book, Four doesn't make his attraction to Tris so freaking obvious. He's more subtle, helping her in smaller ways but almost admitting he cares about her at one point. She asks what he has against her and why he hates her and Four almost says something along the lines of “I don't hate you I...”


Nerd moment. Doctor Who reference here. Let's all go back to when Rose was stranded and the Doctor was burning up a sun just to say goodbye...”Rose Tyler, I...”


IT NEEDS SAYING...IN BOTH CASES!


My other problem is that while it is exposition heavy, it also skips it at the same time. For instance, we don't get to know anything about the Prior family before the choosing day while in the book, we get to see more of Caleb and Beatrice's relationship. Like how she knew which faction he'd pick all along. So, while certain aspects, such as the romance, were emphasized heavily, some of the things I found more important were left out. For instance, in the text, Beatrice is bullied and treated horribly by almost everyone because she's from Abnegation. They don't just all become friends overnight. In fact, there are three people who constantly harass her.


Then again, there is also a scene involving a butter knife and an eyeball...glad that was left out.


But there's also this vague explanation about why they have factions. “The war tore us apart so this is to keep the peace.” Ok...why was there a war? Why did it destroy Chicago? What makes a person Divergent? I get that they have no strong leaning towards one faction but couldn't that be true of anyone? In all fairness, I have not read past this book, so I have no knowledge of what to expect. However, thanks to all you lovely fans on Pintrest, I know something really bad happens in the final book. Let me guess...Four dies?


But really, it's not a terrible movie. It's not the best movie I've seen this year, that still goes to Walter Mitty. The characters are interesting, the plot works out quite well and you do get genuinely absorbed to a point where you can tell what's real and what's a hallucination. However, because the romantic aspect is so important, I got bored of it. We get it, Tris and Four have a thing! It's as obvious as the twist about Eric. Also, Tris doesn't seem to see consequences from so of her actions. She breaks the rules and is praised by Four. She leaves the Dauntless training area for an entire day, doesn't get in trouble. It would be nice to know she isn't exempt from the rules.


I don't want to see this movie again but it was good enough to make me want to finish the book and start on the second one. If and when the sequel, “Insurgent” comes to theaters, I'll pay for a ticket. Overall, it is a decent film, even if it feels far too long and is clearly aimed at girls half my age. And I feel incredibly old saying that.


I want to make a quick not before my usual goofy sign off. Fry and I are planning to see “Noah” but I am extremely hesitant on whether I will review it or not. For one, its steadily becoming more controversial because of its inaccuracies and because I'm not comfortable discussing religious matters in general. It's nothing against religion, I just do not like discussing it. I'm always afraid I'll misquote something and offend someone. Should I choose to review “Noah”, I will make sure I have several people to consult. Mostly because knowing my luck, I'd somehow manage to say that Moses took unicorns in his helicopter. I apologize if that's out of line but I have been known to get a story so wrong no one even knows where it came from.


Other than that, Fry and I are attending a Captain America double feature on Thursday, so you have that to look forward to. I need to review “Pompeii” still. Don't laugh...I actually forgot that I'd seen it. That's how mediocre it was. It wasn't memorable at all. So that'll get written soon. Then I need to touch on “Muppets Most Wanted” which, sadly, was a bit of a let down for me.



I'm TheCinemaChick and I could be in my pajamas right now...with naked feet.