Divergent, the movie

Hailey Newinski, Torch writer

I know people say not to judge a book or movie by its cover, but when I first saw this movie’s cover I thought, “Wow, does this movie look action packed.” So I got excited to watch Divergent and it was very intriguing.  Divergent is all about finding one’s identity and how someone fits in with others. In their world, everyone is divided into distinct factions. The factions are Dauntless, (the brave), Amity, (the peaceful), Erudite,(the intelligent), Abnegation, (the selfless), and Candor, (the honest). Tris, the main character, is warned that she is divergent; which means she is a combination of the factions, a very rare condition. I was shocked to hear this because I had no clue that anyone could be divergent.

This movie isn’t all about the action though. It is also includes romance and the path a young woman takes to learn how to be brave/ selfless. I mean, I do love action, but I enjoy a good love story. Tris must learn how to trust the mysterious Four, a dauntless leader, while still surviving as a divergent. Tris and Four have an incredible bond. In the movie, I find out that Tris is the only one that knows his four fears and discovers his actual name. I was really surprised when he said that his nickname was Four, but I was eager to find out his actual name.

I think the director, Neil Burger, did a phenomenal job. Shailene Woodley played Tris in the movie and she played the part perfectly. Four was played by Theo James and he did all of his own stunts. The director states, “I’m not looking for anything Sci-FI. I’m kinda divergent in my own way.” The movie was planned to hit theaters in March 21, 2014, but right before the movie was released, the whole cast was stressed and Burger didn’t think the show would go on. “He was the leader of the entire pack, he dreamt it up, he made all of the executive decisions. But in the end it turned out alright,” states Woodley, when asked about Neil.

Divergent is one of my favorite movies. The part I love the most in this amazing movie, is when Tris and Four climb the ferris wheel together. This is how Tris finds out one of his fears, heights. I personally can relate to this horror because I am afraid of heights as well. On the other hand, my good friend, Aizlynn, had some different thoughts about this movie. For example, Aizlynn states,“I don’t really like this scene in the book, but there was a scene taken out of the movie that is in the book, it is kind of a gory scene where Edward gets stabbed in the eye and that’s why he doesn’t have an eye in the end of Divergent.” They actually filmed this scene, but they had to cut it because they wanted to keep the PG-13 rating. I am glad they took that out because that scene would’ve been very gruesome to me. I am thrilled that Divergent ended this way and I would highly recommend watching this wonderful movie.