Whenever a director decides to take a book and turn it into a movie, fans of the book all over the world wait in fear and anticipation. Will the director do justice to the magical world brought to them through this book, or would their imagination, once again, prove incompatible with Hollywood?
Divergent is a story about a world where every person is sorted into four factions based on virtues like bravery or intelligence. When Tris, the protagnist of this tale, learns she is a Divergent and won’t fit into any of the factions, she discovers a plot to destroy her and the other Divergents. Now Tris and the mysterious Four, her extremely fit and good-looking counterpart, must find out what it is about Divergents that that everyone seems to fear and what it is that also puts them in danger, before it is too late.
The movie starts by clearly establishing the routine of Tris’ life. We learn about her family, we get to know her and understand her as the movie progresses. When she learns the truth about herself and the decisions she makes, the reasons behind them soon become more understandable.
When she then starts to blend into her new faction, and learns of the one true rule among all factions: “Faction before blood”, she begins to realize that something is amiss. Delving deeper, with the help of Four and some other friends, she comes to realize that the perfect world that they had all believed in had been built on foundations of secrets, half-truths and outright lies. The book and movie both end explosively, leaving audience breathless in anticipation of the sequel.
Overall though, it’s true the filmmakers did do their best to stick as close to the original story with only a few tweaks to accommodate the allotted movie timing and other similar constraints. As with any book to movie adaptation, the book packed more of a punch. Divergent the movie however, is actually one of those movies that do justice to the book.
Of course, there are two more reasons: the gorgeous Shailene Woodley and the equally hot Theo James.
BOOK VS MOVIE
Age Gap
In the book, Four, later known as Tobias Eaton is 18. In the movie, he is 24. The filmmakers explained that this was to lend more credence to his faction status. Also, Theo James, the actor cast as Four is actually 28. It would have been a bit of stretch for him to act 10 years younger than his actual age.
Missing Characters
Ask anyone who read the books, and they would tell you that Uriah and his band of Dauntless-born initiates add an extra dose of cool to the faction. Sadly, the movie does not feature them as prominently as they were in the book. In the movie, Uriah and his posse are only given a cursory glance. But otherwise, the cheeky and heart-stopping handsome Uriah and the other uber-cool Dauntless don’t even appear in the movie.
The Evil Bully
Peter, who was absolutely impossible to like in the book, was turned into a more well-rounded and witty, albeit still cruel character. But the exclusion of his more extremely graphic and violent deeds, like stabbing another character in the eye with a butter knife, or humiliating Tris after her shower by pulling off her towel, made it a bit easier to forget what a cruel jerk he actually was in the book.
Super Censored
In the book, fights and brutality are clearly and graphically detailed. But in the movie, the fights are toned down and shorter, no one dies during the initiates first Dauntless test of jumping from the train, the brutal shooting of Tris’s parents are not directly shown on screen, and no, there was no eye stabbing either.
Fear Landscape
In the book, the awe-inspiring protagonist has seven fears. Each Dauntless must go through their own personal fear landscape, face their worst fears, and overcome them before they can truly be accepted into the faction. In the movie, they made Tris an awe-inspiring and almost fearless character by cutting out her fear of drowning and of being
abducted.
[poll id=”8″]
