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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Divergent's Movie Rant

DIVERGENT'S MOVIE RANT
I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.”

Okay, hello. My name is Hanako, as you all know. And I'm going to rant about the recent new movie, Detergent—I mean Divergent. WARNING FOR MAJOR BIG SPOILERS. Don't say that I didn't warn you.
Recently, I just finished this book called Divergent by Veronica Roth and immediately fell in love with the series. I am currently reading Insurgent right now, the second book of the trilogy.
I fell in love with the story right from the start. It is set in a dystopian world, where the society has been divided into five factions. Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the kind), Candor (the honest), Erudite (the smart), and Dauntless (the brave). The main character, Beatrice Prior, or Tris, was born in Abnegation. But she wasn't sure of herself whether is she really selfless or not—because she thinks that helping people is very hard, not like her brother, Caleb, who thinks helping isn't that hard.
When teens in each factions reach sixteen of their age, they will have to take a test—aptitude test—to determine which faction is the best for them. Most of the time all teens got their own faction from before, but sometimes the different one. But Beatrice is neither of those.
She's a Divergent—a threat to the factions, or so the Erudite thought.
I read it and I was amazed by how addicting the story is—I want to read it again and again, but I'm also curious about Insurgent so I read that first. I imagined Four as a calm and cool guy with the face of Shiloh Fernandez. I imagined Tris as a skinny short girl with the face of... Amanda Seyfried—or Dakota Fanning. I imagined Christina as a pretty girl with short black hair and long legs like... I don't know. Caleb with a face of Freddie Highmore. And Will, like Max Irons with glasses or someone alike—or Logan Lerman HAHAHAHA. I imagined Al with the face of Ron Weasley but with black hair and larger body I'm so sorry—or Jesse Eisenberg. I imagined Peter as a cool and fucked up cool guy like David Henrie.
Then I heard there's gonna be a movie adaptation of Divergent. I was so excited and all jumpy with my friends because we were soooooo fucking excited to watch it. Until we watched it.
It was horrible. Actually, it's not, if you haven't read the book. The storyline is too fast—it's like a summary of the Divergent book though it's a movie adaptation of it. I was very disappointed.
I'm not saying that the acting is horrible, or the scenery is horrible. No, that's not it. The scenery is good and more than I expected and imagined—except for the chasm. The acting is awesome—except for when Tris is trying to mimic the walking dead Dauntless soldiers—the soldiers should be walking in synchronize. And they don't. Not that I care, though.
The actors are also different from what I expected. I am quite satisfied with Christina, Tris, Caleb, and Four's actor/actress, but the other ones, man... Especially Peter. Damn, that guy, I thought he was cooler. When I see his actor—I went blind. No offense, Miles Teller. Not that I mind with the actors and actresses—what I really mind about is the storyline in the movie.
It's totally fucked up.
It missed a lot of important scenes and characters! Well, I don't mind if they just skip the small or big unimportant scenes such as when Four was drunk (though I really want to see that) and Tris's bed is spray-painted the word “Stiff” by Peter.. But really? The important things man— Below are what is in the book but not in the movie:

  1. First of all, Uriah. WHERE THE FUCK IS URIAH AND HIS BROTHER AND HIS FRIENDS? I don't know. There was a black guy running when Tris goes with the Dauntless born initiates and I thought that was Uriah. I said to my friend “eh isnt that uriah” but my friend said “no thats not uriah dude” and I went “WHAT”.
  2. Second, Edward's death. That one is important—where Edward is the greatest Dauntless transfer initiate of all, and Peter got jealous and stuff and then the latter stabbed Edward's eye with a fork(?). Just because Myra and Edward is a complete side-characters, that doesn't mean they don't have to appear in the movie! They should've make Tris reacts to the scene and where she and Christina clean the blood and how Edward and Myra go factionless because of Peter.
  3. Third of all, Molly and Drew. Yeah, I know Molly and Drew are such assholes and they work with Peter and stuff. But that doesn't mean they have no respect, right? They have to appear in the movie too—and in the same way as the other characters! Yes, I know Molly appears in the movie, but they didn't even mentioned her name. What the fuck is wrong— ugh. Drew didn't appear in the movie at all which made me disappointed. The hell? Guys, show some respect to Drew, he was injured most of the time!
  4. Fourth of all, the battles. You know the battles, right? Part of the initiation? Yes, of course you know that, whether have you read the book or not. But you must be unfamiliar with the battles below if you haven't read the book—it's not in order:
  • Molly vs. TrisYes, there might be Molly vs. Tris in the movie, but that's not all. They fight twice in the book, and only one time in the movie. The first one is when Molly beats her up and Tris looses to her. And then the second one, Tris won and Molly was angry to her. She planned something to get her revenge. You remember in the movie where Peter was reading about Erudite's bullshits about Abnegation? That is supposed to be Molly's revenge in the book. I noticed how Molly is staring at Peter when he reads it—probably that's because she's the one who planned it. This makes Tris went crazy and on a rampage because they insulted her family—no, her former family. Remember faction before blood? That's one of Tris's weaknesses.
  • Will vs. Al
Okay, maybe the reader won't remember this one because it was the first battle in the initiation. This is where Will confidently thought that he would win, but no, Al won. Will didn't expect it, but Al suddenly charges at the former and grabs his arm and punches him hard in the jaw. That's when Will lost consciousness. This is an important battle, explaining how Al got his first point, and though in truth, he's weak and then he breaks until he no longer breaths.
  • Molly vs. Edward
    This battle isn't really important, so I don't really care.hhhahahaha
  • Al vs. Drew
    Veronica Roth herself doesn't show this one in the book, but Al did mention about it. So it's absolutely not necessary to be shown.
It's not all, but those are the ones I can remember.
  1. Fifth of all, The Visiting Day and Robert and Tris's reunion. This two are important too! Like, in the movie, instead visiting Tris on the visiting day, her mother visited her when the Dauntless went to the Amity. Isn't that just annoying? When Tris saw something in Amity, I thought she's going to meet with Robert. But nope dope, it's her mother. WHAT. THE. FUCK. She is supposed to go meet Tris in the visiting day, and then she introduces herself to Four! Goddammit, film.
  2. Sixth of all, the flag. This is important too, very important, in fact. Even though you won't see it well in the movie, it is very well described in the book. The one who took the flag in the Paintball game is actually Christina—but in the film, it's both of them (Tris and Christina). It disappoints me because Christina should be the one who took the flag—if so, she will give Tris a patronizing look, telling her that it's enough for her to make the perfect plan. If so, Tris would be hurt, and it will be great in the movie.
  3. Seventh of all, the aptitude test and the simulation. I don't really care, but I am bothered by the fact that one of the aptitude test is gone. The one where someone asked Beatrice about a serial killer or something, and she knows him, but she lied to the guy. Also, half of the simulations too—the last initiation stage. They're completely different from the one in the book. I caN'T.
  4. Eighth of all, the code when Tris went to their family at the end. There was supposed to be a knocking code, told by her mother. It is “knock two times, three times, and then six times” if I'm not wrong. But there is a code, not just barge in to the room just like that in the movie. Sighs.
  5. Ninth of all, and the worse of them all, is Al's death. I am so disappointed in this one. Al's death is more than just go-kill-Tris-with-Peter-and-Drew-because-I'm-the-last-one-because-of-her and she-didn't-forgive-me-and-I-decided-to-go-to-take-an-eternal-holiday-in-the-chasm. No! The movie makes it seems like that, but it is more than that. At first, Al thought Tris only as a friend. But then after the knife accident with Al, Eric, Four, and Tris, he began to develop a feeling for the girl. Al is the first one to break down during their first night in the Dauntless dormitory. He also seems broken after he went to the second stage of initiation by fear. He experiences night terrors, and often waking up screaming.
    And then twisted by jealousy of Tris's development, bitterness, desperation, and depression of his own, Al joins Peter and Drew in their attempt to throw Tris into the chasm, murdering her. But Al merely wants to scare her. Then when the other two begin to touch Tris in inappropriate places, he tried to stop them. Later, he attempted to apologize to Tris, but Tris didn't accept his apology, even threatened him that if he come closer to her again, she'll kill him.
    I won't hurt you. I never wanted to... I just want to say that I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I just don't... I don't know what's wrong with me, I... please forgive me, please...”
    Depressed, afraid, and remorseful, Al jumped into the chasm, thus ending his life.
    In the aftermath of Al's death, Tris calls his suicide selfish yet Eric calls it courageous. Tris said that if he was truly brave, he would have admitted his mistake and left Dauntless instead of taking his own life.
  6. Tenth of all, Tori. In the aptitude test, Tris didn't ask about the tattoo Tori has. But that's important—it's a reason for why Tris's decided to get a tattoo. Ugh gdi man.
  7. Eleventh of all, the not so simulation drowning. In the book, there is a part where Tris is actually drowning, not in a simulation. It's the execution from Jeanine for her since she is no use anymore. This is where she met her mother. Her mother saved her from the water box, and then ran together. In the movie, Tris was going to be executed in a different way—a shot on the head. That's when her mother arrived to save her. Different, yes?

There are still things about the Divergent movie I want to talk about.

They made the important characters—Christina, Will, Al, and Molly—looks like some freaking unimportant side-characters. Even Peter looks like an unimportant side-characters. Drew and Uriah—they didn't even appear in the movie.
Christina should be a girl who always comforts and protects Tris when she's weak. Talk girly things when Christina said to Tris that Will kissed her. She and Will are the ones who always protect Tris when she looks weak. Will, too, same as Christina, is the one who is responsible for her rash actions. He always calms her down like when Peter reads Erudite's articles about Abnegation.
Al's actions are a lot too. Like when I said in the ninth scene that's in the book but not in the movie. Also, he confessed to her indirectly, like, that should happen in the movie. It'll be awesome.
Uriah. Uriah also plays a big role in the story. Uriah, Marlene, and Lynn. When she is with them, Tris feels strong.

I also don't like that the fact they change most of the dialogues and scenes—like when Tris went to Erudite's compound. She is supposed to find Caleb by punching a man(?) and then that's when Caleb arrives. And when she talked with Jeanine—in the book, Jeanine sounds like that she didn't trust her, but in the movie, she trusted her. Same by when Four and Tris were caught. In the movie, Jeanine said that she thought Tris was a good girl and stuff. But in the book, Jeanine said that she always thought that Tris a good girl.

The scene with Four—Tobias also. It's completely different. In the movie, they are all of the sudden in a balcony, and then they kiss and stuff and then Four showed his tattoo. What in the actual fuck? No, just... No. That's not realistic. In the book, Four showed it when the two are alone in his room after the last and final initiation test. Where he said his famous quote: “I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.”

I also think that they didn't show Peter's cruelness enough. They only showed Peter reading Erudite's bullshits about Abnegation, and then when he and Al and Drew (notsureiftheotheroneisDrewbecause) attempted to throw her to the chasm. They should, because Peter is beyond cruel. Stabbing Edward's eye, harassing Tris with Molly and Drew. He's beyond cruel. They only show Jeanine's intention of destroying “human nature” (or so that the film said). Erudite's evil intention.

They also mainly show only the Tobias/Tris pairing. More Four/Six, less friendship. I don't like that. You can live without romance, but you can't live without friendship, right? Tris's friendship with Uriah, Christina, Al, Will, Marlene, and Lynn is important. You can't just not show that beautiful friendship of theirs.

I don't know whose fault is it. The book or the movie. The book is too long—but the movie can always be divided into two parts... So I don't know which one is right. What do you think, though?
The characters are also a lot. But you can't just shove them not important characters away, right? No, of course not. Who's the director again? Oh, Neil Burger. I give you 4/10 in this one, sorry. But VERONICA ROTH I GIVE YOU 100/10 TO THE NOVEL, CHEERS.


Okay, I think I'm done ranting. And with this, Hanako's out!

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