“What makes you different makes you dangerous.” It seems that another best-selling YA dystopian novel has made its way to the big screen. “Divergent,” the first novel in the three-part series written by Veronica Roth, has been adapted into a major motion picture and was released to theaters everywhere on March 21.
The film stars Shailene Woodley as Beatrice/Tris, a teenager living in futuristic post-apocalyptic Chicago. The world people know today has changed into a society that determines where a person belongs based on his/her moral values, which include Erudite (knowledge and intellect), Candor (honesty), Amity (peace and harmony), and Dauntless (bravery and courage). Tris has been born into Abnegation, the faction in which people seek to become completely selfless and focus on the others in need in their community. When she is faced with the decision to pick the faction in which she must live the rest of her life, Tris finds that her choice is unclear to her, which makes her different from those who know immediately where they belong. She discovers she is Divergent, which is a secret she must protect from those who find people like her a threat to society, since she cannot conform to the expectations of one particular faction.
Along with Woodley, Theo James stars as Four, the mysterious faction trainer of Dauntless, and Kate Winslet is Jeanine Matthews, the vicious faction leader of Erudite. Other notable names include Ansel Elgort, Tony Goldwyn, Ashley Judd, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, and Maggie Q.
It’s the story of breaking out of one’s shell and learning to cope with the differences that set someone apart from others. Tris learns to embrace her new life and even excel at what challenges come to pass. While the film is well cast, action-packed, and keeps the audience entertained, it has its flaws. The main complaint: it’s predictable. Like every other dystopian of our era, Tris’s life soon becomes filled with danger, which is of course exciting and heart-pounding, although with the life that she has chosen to live, it’s no surprise to the audience. And – spoiler alert! – there’s the inevitable love interest that becomes the side plot of the story. Despite this, the film is sure to please the fan base, as Veronica Roth has gained a significant following since the book release of “Divergent” back in 2011. The sequel, entitled “Insurgent,” is scheduled for release on March 20, 2015.
