4/11/2014 Divergent Delivers Conflict, Excitement, and Eye Candy

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In a sea of screaming teens, I had the opportunity to screen the first film in the Divergent series—an adaptation of

Veronica Roth's best-selling trilogy of young adult novels. The storyline follows the protagonist, Beatrice 'Tris' Prior

(Shailene Woodley), as she finds her true self in a society riddled with rigid categorization. Set in a futuristic Chicago,

society has been divided into multiple, entirely polarized 'factions' defined by whichever personality trait the individuals

hold in highest esteem. Be it smarts, selflessness, or the pursuit of knowledge, individuals have been trained to make

every decision through the context of their faction manifesto.

Our hero, an initially timid and insecure Beatrice Prior, is a member of 'Abnegation'—defined by self-denial. She

introduces us to her world and walks us to the Aptitude Tests that will suggest which faction each sixteen year-old is most

aligned with. Through a series of simulated scenarios, a moderator can whittle options away until finding a single faction

based on the choices the subject makes…usually. Beatrice's results show that she lacks the predictable thought process

that society has nurtured. She's divergent. Harkening back to Huxley's Brave New World, the powers that be do not

tolerate unpredictable action. Beatrice is warned to guard her new secret to avoid potentially fatal consequences.

At the 'Choosing Ceremony,' the threshold to the initiation process, the sixteen year-olds must choose which faction they

want to join. While nothing holds them back from defecting, we're told that 95% choose their home faction. As could be

expected from a 'divergent,' Beatrice opts to change factions and run with the Dauntless—a group of free-willed

daredevils covered in tattoos and piercings. Through her initiation process with this new faction, we follow 'Tris' as she

studies under a cryptically nicknamed mentor, Four (Theo James), and ultimately makes the transition from an insecure

child to a confident adult just in time for society to crumble around her.

Before seeing the movie, I opted to read the novel since the author, Veronica Roth, would be in attendance. While I'm not

one to harp on filmmakers for reshaping a story to play better on-screen, I couldn't help but feel like certain plot points

were only important because I knew enough to fill in the gaps. Shailene Woodley's take was that "the book has so many

different things happening, so to translate that to the screen was, I think, a little bit difficult for the screenwriters. The script

was sort of evolving as we were filming, so… [bringing the story back to the book] was something we were constantly

working on." Younger audiences will largely be familiar with the story, but I can't help but think some points may not have

been as clear had I seen the film 'blind.'

With that caveat addressed, I felt the film was entirely successful in creating an exciting storyline with an adept use of

visual effects. Woodley recalled working on an early scene during her aptitude test. "The mirror scene at the beginning

was something that special effects worked on for like two years… and to see it come to fruition was really neat and I think

they did a really good job. We had to film every single angle, so all of those different Tris' we actually had to film." 'Super

fans' at the screening and press conference were overwhelmingly positive about the adaptation, and the cast seemed

pretty attuned to their fan-base. Theo James said, "It feels really gratifying being involved in something that people are

already invested in… that people already love."

Divergent was, in my mind, a successful first installment of a trilogy we'll be hearing a lot more about in the next few

years. While the film may be most appreciated by readers of Roth's novels, those unfamiliar with all of the details will still

have plenty of conflict, excitement, and eye candy to leave them impatiently waiting for the second installment, Insurgent,

slated to hit theatres in 2015.