Film Review: Divergent

Photo credit: http://www.hypable.com

On Friday, March 21st, the highly anticipated book-to-film Divergent opened up in theaters. In case you've been missing out on the trailers, Divergent is a young adult book written by Veronica Roth that takes place in post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the city is divided up into five factions based on what traits they value most: Amity (peace), Abnegation (Selflessness), Erudite (intelligence), Candor (honesty), and Dauntless (courage).
It specifically focuses on a 16 year old girl, Tris Prior (played by Shailene Woodley) and follows her as she struggles to find her self in the faction she chose-- Dauntless. She finds out she is Divergent (doesn't fit into any one of the factions) and must keep her identity a secret because she is seen as a threat to the government. She falls in love with her Dauntless trainer (played by Theo James) and together they learn that the government plan to eliminate all those that are Divergent to keep the factions from joining forces.

As someone who was a huge fan of the book, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the movie.

First of all: Casting ( I kind of have a lot to say).

Main Characters:

I'll be honest and say I am generally not a fan of Shailene Woodley. Maybe it's because I can't shake some of her previous works (That ABC Family American Teenager Pregnancy)out of my head, or maybe it's because I think she's just not the right fit for Tris. She's a talented actress and there were moments where her acting really shined, but something about her didn't click as smoothly with the character of Tris, and I can't really pinpoint what it is.

I was a bit taken aback that Ansel Elgort was casted alongside Shailene Woodley as Tris's brother, Caleb Prior. I thought the two of them looked great as siblings, but what irked me was the fact that they're also casted alongside each other in a completely different book to film movie, The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green.  This will definitely be another blockbuster teen flick, and it's just something that makes me wonder: Are there are not enough teen actors in the acting pool to choose different actors for these roles? COME ON!

Siblings in Divergent.... Photo Credit from justjared.com

Lovers in The Fault in Our Stars Photo Credit: Dailymail.uk

Theo James who plays Four was someone who I definitely did not imagine as Four though I do think he did a great job of capturing Four's cool and intimidating persona. Not exactly my first choice for Four, but he played the part well.

Secondary Characters:

Photo Credit: http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/

The actors for Christina (Zoe Kravitz), Will (Ben Lloyd Hughes), Peter (Miles Teller), and Al (Christian Madsen) were great casting. I thought the actors for Will, Peter and Al all generally looked the same though, so it was hard deciphering who was who while watching the movie. I actually wasn't too sure about the casting for Christina, her first sarcastic appearance might have been too strong as I imagined her to be a lot bubblier with a hint of sarcasm. However, she grew on me throughout hte movie and I thought her and Will looked great together (of course my heart broke at the sight of them together.)

Jai Courtney as Eric was almost exactly how I pictured Eric and Jair Courtney made it extremely easy to hate his character. Another great casting choice was definitely Ashley Judd as Natalie Prior who's bad-assery was almost more kick ass then her daughter, and Kate Winslet who fabulously played Jeanine Mason as the cold hearted Erudite bitch leader.


Setting/Cinematography/Pacing:

Photo Credit: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

SO MUCH CHICAGO, IT WAS PERFECT. I'm particularly in love with the city of Chicago, so I was expecting to see a lot of Chicago landscape and scenery and boy did this movie sell it. I'm so glad they didn't ruin one of my favorite scenes, the Navy Pier Capture the flag scene. There was enough Chicago appreciation, enough cringeworthy relationship development, and epic music.

The only thing that I wasn't a fan of was the sometime incredibly shaky camera and the overly-close zoom ins on the faces of the actors, which is something I noticed that Summit Entertainment likes to do.. (remember Twilight?)
The pacing of the movie seemed to drag on, especially in the beginning. I feel like this is something that couldn't have been avoided because there are so many scenes that were necessary to include for the those that haven't read the book... but in reality the movie just felt too long.

Soundtrack:
Can we talk about how great the soundtrack was? Ok, so maybe there was a little (ok, a LOT) of Ellie Goulding, but Zedd, Snow Patrol, A$AP Rocky and Skrillex? YES THIS IS GOOD! *gets soundtrack immediately*

Overall, I'd give the movie a 7/10. It lived up to my expectations, but some things just didn't click right for me.