Thoughts on Divergent Movie

On Sunday night, a group of friends and I went to see Divergent in theaters. There have been a lot of mixed feelings about the movie and some negative reviews, so I wanted to add my thoughts.

Caveat: I've read the book several times, so it was easy for me to fill in the blanks, so to speak, the movie left.

1. I've heard/read a lot of complaints about the excitement of the movie showing up only in the last third of the movie. Along the same lines, people have complained that in the majority of the movie you don't feel the urgency or importance of what the characters are doing in regards to the inevitable societal breakdown. MY RESPONSE: Divergent is about a girl in a dystopian society, not about a dystopian society! The trilogy follows the self-discovery and personal growth of Tris as she faces difficult circumstances. It's not about the catastrophic downfall of societal structure and the ensuing war. Yes, those are significant parts of the story, but the main theme is all Tris.
2. As with any adaptation, the movie does differ from the book in some ways, but I didn't feel like too many liberties were taken. My main complaint is the way Tris' mother dies in the movie. In the book, her mother obviously sacrificed herself to save Tris. She went out into the street knowing she wouldn't make it. In the movie, it just looks like she accidentally got shot and died, which cheapens her death and downplays her sacrifice. Maybe they wanted to change things up because her dad also dies sacrificing himself for her, but still, what true sacrifice means becomes a huge theme in the trilogy, and I think it's appropriate for Tris to have two shining examples of that even if they're similar.
3. As always, the book is better than the movie, and I think reading the book helps you appreciate the movie more. Ultimately, I enjoyed the movie a lot, and I think it's worth seeing.

Let me know what you think!