As the celebrities made their way out of the building, all
those with tickets to the screening were ushered into theaters for the main
event. From the first establishing shot of a weathered, broken-down Chicago to
the final scene before the closing credits, Divergent exceeded my expectations.
Yes, some scenes from the book were not included in the
film. Yes, some scenes were altered. And yes, there were some added scenes. But
the changes came together in a way that allowed the essence of the story to
unfold on the screen with the same emotions that I’m sure gripped most of us as
we read the book that first time. Over the course of over two hours, those
around me cheered, squealed, laughed, and cringed.
But what surprised me most about Divergent was the acting.
I’m a big fan of both Shailene Woodley and Theo James, but I initially had trouble seeing
them as Tris and Four. After seeing the film, let me assure you – they have those characters down!
Both actors have the ability to get emotion across to the audience using only
their body language, which is important when portraying these two
characters. They seem to embody the characters they're playing to a degree that many young actors just don't have the ability to do. I’ve never disliked Miles Teller before, but he was properly despicable
as Peter. Jai Courtney played Eric with a frightening accuracy, Ansel Elgort
reminded me of my own big brothers as Caleb, and Ashley Judd shined as Natalie
Prior, despite little screentime.
Equally surprising to me was how
underwhelmed I was by the performances of Zoe Kravitz (Christina), Ben
Lloyd-Hughes (Will), and Maggie Q (Tori). It will take another viewing or two
to decide whether it was the acting, or just an organic result from the script
itself, that left me wanting more from them. I only hope that whatever it was the
seemed to be missing will not have a major effect on the rest of the franchise,
as the impact of those three characters linger through the final two books in
the series.
Despite the small disappointments, Divergent was a hit. Add the well-developed story to some beautiful
cinematography and a great soundtrack and score, and I believe that Divergent
will stand as one of the better book-to-film adaptations in recent years.
