Maret 28, 2014

Divergent movie review~

So last Saturday, I watched the highly anticipated movie adaptation of Divergent which is based on Veronica Roth's Divergent Trilogy.

Here's the proof.


I have mixed feeling after watching the movie and I want to talk a lot about it. I intend to post my rant thought(s) on twitter, but I think it will be annoyingly long for my follower to read and I'm afraid I'll spoil the movie for them, so yeah, I think I'll blog it instead. This blog post will be inordinately long .__.


WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!
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This so-called review will contain spoiler(s) from the books and also the movie!!! If you haven't watched the movie, do not proceed!!! I repeat, This so-called review will contain spoiler(s) from the books and also the movie!!! If you haven't watched the movie, do not proceed!!! I will also rant about how different the movie is from the book!! You've been warned!!
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WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!

So here it goes,

The movie started with an explanation regarding the war and the faction system. After the war, the society is divided to five different factions. They are : Abnegation (the selfless one), Amity (the peaceful one), Candor (the honest one), Dauntless (the brave one), and Erudite (the smart one).
I think the costume department done a great job in this part, I really really like the outfit of Candor and Erudite's. The Dauntless outfit reached my expectation, black leather jacket and whatever. No surprise there. The abnegation outfit is duller that I expected it to be. And the least favorite outfit of my liking is Amity's. It looks more orange than the red-yellow outfit that Veronica Roth described in her book.

After the brief explanation of the faction, the movie started to visualize the book from chapter 1. It started with Beatrice who get her hair cut by her mother. I think Sheilene Woodley is a great actress to portray Beatrice Prior xD After she get her hair cut, they chatted about the aptitude test that she'll take that day. Let's skip to the aptitude test part.

The 16 years old are lined up in front of a building (that supposed to be the school, but the movie doesn't mention it). They lined up according to their faction. During the line up, we'll see a candor boy who taunt the abnegation kid. This is the first time we meet Peter in the movie. Amity, Candor, Erudite and Abnegation was lining up when the Dauntless arrived by trains. I like this scene when the Dauntless cheered and jumped from a moving train. (The Dauntless faction is basically a group of adrenaline junkies.) Then they all proceed to a room where they get a briefing regarding the aptitude test.

Beatrice aptitude test scene is one of the scene that I'm excited to see! She entered the room that exactly appeared like the room that described in the book. Then she met Tori. The movie omitted their conversation though. Then she drank the clear liquid and the test begin.  This is quite the same like the book, but they didn't include the bus part. Then Beatrice wake up and Tori told her that she's Divergent and don't tell anyone about this and told her to go home.

She is supposed to share food and have a conversation with a factionless man on her way home, but no, that part is omitted.

And then the Prior family ate dinner. The light in their dining room is dim, I never imagine the abnegation home to be that dark. They talk about the aptitude test during dinner and something about Erudite. After the dinner, there's this scene where they hugged each other before they're going to sleep. And then Beatrice and Caleb have a conversation in the kitchen about how they should think about their family but they also need to think about themselves. Direct book quote!!!

Then come the Choosing Ceremony! FACTION BEFORE BLOOD! I really enjoyed this part... This part is true to the book. Caleb transfered to Erudite. Beatrice hesitantly transfered to Dauntless. And the horror of their parents face. The movie didn't explain the elements of the bowl though..

Right after the choosing ceremony ended, Beatrice and her new faction ran and cheered in the hallway. I love the energy! Then they climb a metal structure to get to a platform where they literally catch the train. They started running toward the moving train and they get in. That's where Beatrice met Christina. Then they all jumped from the moving train to a roof. That's really awesome! Too bad the panicky amity boy who didn't jump the train and the dauntless girl who fail to reach the roof (and died) aren't included in the movie.

Then there's the part where they need to jump from the roof to get to Dauntless headquarters. I find it hard to visualize this part when I read the book. The movie did a great job in this part! She jumped and then the net caught her. Then she met Four for the first time and she changed her name to Tris.

[ I sorta forget the exact order of the initiation process, so yeah, this part will be written haphazardly]

Then they start the initiation process. They separated the dauntless-born and the transfer. After that, the initiates have lunch. The initiates showed us the trait of their old faction. Will the know-it-all-Erudite will make a remark on a random fact and Christina the straightforward-Candor will say whatever she wanted to say. When they finished lunch, the dauntless faction make a raucous cheer while they clank the metal glass. Then Max the Dauntless leader showed up to make a speech which include another direct book quote from the Dauntless manifesto : "We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.". My favorite line from the book xD

The first stage of the initiation is hand-to-hand combat. They introduced this douchiest character in the movie, Eric.He supervise the initiation process with Four. The initiate must fight until one of them can't continue. I don't really like this part to be honest. Especially when Tris beaten up by this female character that somehow have no name. I suppose it's molly, but nobody mentioned that name :|

I love that part when Tris got her tattoos. The tattoo machine looks so futuristic and awesome. I wish the movie explained what the tattoos mean to Tris, but hey, that's what the book is for.

The initiation process is quite different from the book. The leaderboard of the dauntless-born and the transfer is supposed to be separated :| And it supposed to be written manually with a chalk in the blackboard. Regardless, the screen that showed the leaderboard seems futuristically awesome. [Fun Fact : Even though Uriah omitted from the movie, his name can be seen in the leader-board.]

Then the infamous knife throwing scene! That's PERFECT! It happened exactly like how I imagined them when I read the book.

I also loved the Ferris wheel scene during the capture-the-flag! This is one of the scene that I'm waiting for! It's true to the book, so I'm really happy to actually see this part.The part when Tris got the flag is a great scene too...

Right after the capture-the-flag game, when they get back to the dauntless headquarter, a random kid invited Tris to try ziplining. (*It supposed to be Uriah's job to do so, but his character isn't included in the movie yet...). They gathered to this tall building, and then they zipline head-first~ This scene is just breathtaking... This scene would be more awesome if they included the human net to this scene.

Despite all the excitement in the beginning of the movie, I'm quite disappointed that the part where Peter stabbed Edward's eye with a butter knife is omitted in the movie... [*maybe that part is too disturbing for the audience.. that make sense] [**and I just realized that there's no character named Edward in the movie :| ][***EDIT : I just found out that they actually filmed that infamous scene. But that scene is not in the final cut because, as I expect it before, it's a PG-13 movie and they can't show this kind of scene to the audience.] Or the part where peter yanked Tris' towel in the dorm on the visiting day [*I think it's omitted for obvious reason]. And this part when Four was drunk. These are just a minor scene that's okay to be omitted in the movie, though.

But my biggest disappointment in this movie is when they omitted the visiting day!!! I mean, that part is the most crucial part of the story!!! In the book, Tris is supposed to meet her mother in the visiting day. Her mother who knew that she is divergent is supposed to instruct her to find Caleb and have him researched this simulation serum. And in the end of the conversation, she asked her to have a piece of dauntless chocolate cake for her, which suggest the reader that her mother herself was dauntless. [She's also supposed to meet Will's sister, Cara... but yeah, she didn't.] In the movie, there's no visiting day! She surreptitiously met her mother in a discrete place in which she told her that she has known that she's divergent. But that was it, there are no mention about the simulation serum. Then Tris took the train to the see Caleb for no apparent reason. It was clear in the book that she visit Caleb to have him researched this simulation serum, but in the movie, there's no reason for her to see him. And then she came home safely with no problem afterward :|

The part when the boys tried to throw Tris into the chasm is exciting! Tris recognized Al's scent in the book, but that's impossible to visualize in the movie, so Tris grabbed one of the mask and revealed Al's face in the movie. It will make a shocking effect for those who haven't read the book, which is awesome. And then Four came and save the day, which is also awesome.

After the incident, Four take Tris to his place and he take care of her wound. And that's when I hear another direct book quote : "Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up. I've seen it.". And there's also this part when Tris want to see Four's tattoos. I think that part is pretty accurate too... That he don't want to be just brave... He wants to be brave and smart and honest and selfless and kind. Although he's still working on the kind part. Whoever made that tattoo for Four deserve a raise because that tattoo looks incredible.


  The closer we are to the end of the movie, the more death you'll see. The first one is Al's suicide. After the kidnapping incident, Al tried to apologize to Tris, but Tris didn't forgive him. And the next thing you know, some of the adult dauntless is pulling a rope with Al's body on the other end of the rope.Al jumped into the chasm to end his life.In the book, the dauntless celebrate Al's death as an act of bravery. I was hoping to see that part to be visualized in the movie, but this part is omitted too...


Let's move on to the next subject, which is the second part of the initiation, : The Fear Landscape. The movie visualized this part magnificently. The birds and the box filled with water... This part is just awesome. But Tris is supposed to have six fears, but they only showed five of it. Four's fear landscape is correct though... ( height, confinement, killing an innocent and his father. They visualized it nicely!). What's lacking in this part is a proper explanation about how many fears most people have. If they knew that most people have like 15 fears or something, they'll know how badass it is to have only four fears. I guess they'll never know. 

After the initiation process completed, all member of the dauntless faction (*minus the leader) got injected with simulation serum something. That's when the Dauntless attack begin! The dauntless attack is a little bit different from the book, some minor changes but it doesn't change the story much. Every member of dauntless faction start lining up to the Pit with their vacant gaze and picking up a weapon. In the movie, they added this scene where they shoot a divergent who didn't affected by the simulation serum.Then they headed to Abnegation by train. That part when Tris approached Four in the train and they hold hand is great.  

Then they arrived in abnegation. The first thing that Tris did was finding her family. But she didn't find anybody in her home. Let's skip to the part where Eric thought that Four is under the influence of the simulation serum. It's fun to see this part played out in the movie, when Four point the gun after he taunt him, then they all point their gun to one another. Then Tris shot Eric after he said that she won't shoot him. Then they ran, but unfortunately Tris got shoot in the shoulder.

Not long after that, both of them are captured. They took Four away for an experiment and instructed to kill Tris because she's injured and can't be used in the experiment. In the book, they put Tris in a box that similar like the box in her fear landscape. But the movie maker is too lazy to make that part of book happened, so they just made some dauntless soldiers escort her out and have the dauntless soldier to point out their weapon to Tris' head.Then out of the blue, her mother showed up with a gun and saved her. Would it be awesome if my mom do the same? xD

They flee from the scene to where his father is. They are still pursued by some dauntless soldier. Then there's this part when Tris killed Will.That scene is as heartbreaking as it is in the book. And not long after that,  Tris' mother is dead too... (*In the book, her mother stormed at the door to create a diversion so Tris can escape the building in which she was captured).

Tris managed to find his father and his brother in the hideout.  That's when she met Markus, Tobias' father. I like this part when Tris met Markus and she just glared at him. But after that, they just make a strategy and headed to dauntless headquarter. (*In the book, they treated her injury first before they headed to dauntless headquarter.)

After they grabbed the train and jump to the roof, they reached the dauntless headquarter. Then she met Peter. And honestly, this is my favorite part :

Not long after that, Tris' Father sacrifice himself so they can proceed to the control room. OH MY GOD, VERONICA ROTH!!! YOU JUST KILLED TRIS' MOM A FEW MINUTES AGO!!! GIVE HER A BREAK!!!
Since Caleb is having a breakdown, Tris proceed to the control room alone.

This part in the control room is pretty different. In the book, it was just Four alone in the room and he was typing some stuff in the computer because they successfully hijacked him and he controlled the attack now.
But in the movie, the control room looked like an erudite laboratory with computers and some scientist running around. But the idea in this part is still the same... Four is under the simulation serum, Tris tried to wake him up, she failed miserably, then she point out the gun to her own head and BAM! Power of Love! Four is awakened. Then both of them tried to stop the simulation. Then there's also this part that's not in the book but I totally like, that part when Jeanine Matthew's hand get stabbed with a knife! That's brilliant! I didn't see that coming xD Then Tris inject the same simulation serum to Jeanine and Simulation = OFF.

And then they got to the train and the first movie ends here...

I would've enjoyed this movie more if I haven't read the book :/ The book is magnificent, but its movie adaptation is not really satisfying to be honest. I want to be biased with the fact that I've read the book first and I love it so I'll surely love the movie adaptation, but I don't really like it. The movie adaptation didn't do the book justice, but nevertheless I still kinda like it. Mixed feeling .__. but I guess this formula applied to this movie :
[ The original books > Its movie adaptation]
 But hey, don't judge the book by its movie adaptation.
I hope the movie adaptation of Insurgent will be better than Divergent .__.

The only book-to-movie adaptation that I really enjoyed was Catching Fire. Minor changes, but they got the book right! Maybe I'll write about it later xD

So, have you watched this movie? What do you think?

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