Last week I had the chance to attend a special screening of Divergent. Before we talk more about the movie, let me confess that I haven’t read the books. I love to read, but the Young Adult genre typically isn’t my thing. There have been plenty of movies based on popular book series that I have loved, though, and after viewing the trailer for Divergent I was looking forward to the movie.
Divergent is a film set in a dystopian future. People are divided into factions based on their personalities. Tris Prior (played by Shailene Woodley) is warned during testing that she is Divergent. That means her personality doesn’t fit neatly into one faction. After discovering a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she sets out to find the reason why being Divergent is so dangerous. Divergent is based on the best-selling book series by Veronica Roth.
Before seeing the movie I joined in on all of the online fun. Like taking the online “what faction are you” type quizzes. Apparently I’m Abnegation, although I don’t think I agree. When it actually came to watching the movie, I totally enjoyed myself. I never felt like I was missing out on anything by not having read the books. And honestly, watching Theo James on-screen was pretty much more than enough reason for seeing the film.
So yes, you can totally enjoy yourself at Divergent, even if the story is new to you. I guess now the question is, what if you are a fan of the book? I happened to see the movie with a friend and her son, both of whom have read the books. They each enjoyed the film and thought it would make fans of the books happy. They did identify some key differences between the film and the books, but nothing they found overly distracting.
Divergent is in theaters now.