‘Divergent’ is an American science-fiction film produced in 2014. The film is directed by Neil Burger and the script is written by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor which is based on the novel with the same name written by Veronica Roth. ‘Divergent’ is the first movie in the Divergent trilogy with the second movie being ‘Insurgent’ and the last movie being ‘Allegiant’. When the movie was released, it was one of the best releases yet in 2014 and in my opinion, it is still a great movie to this day if you want to watch a greatly produced dystopian science-fiction movie.
We’re located in a futuristic dystopian city where everything has changed. Before everything changed there was a big war that changed the whole world. The war changed the landscapes, the population, and the society a lot and it caused some huge changes in society. Because of the war, changes were made in society to prevent future war and everlasting peace. The leaders of the city decided to split the society into five different factions. These five factions determine who you are as a person and what you will do for the rest of your life since these factions can’t be changed once chosen. On a chosen day each year, all sixteen-year-old teens must choose a faction after taking a placement test that tests your thoughts and mentality. The placement test concludes what faction will suit you the best and which one you should choose. Usually, the placement test results will give the same results as your parent’s factions, but there are some extraordinary cases where the placement results get unclear. And this is exactly what happened with the main character Beatrice.
Beatrice is a blonde-haired happy and helpful girl. Being the youngest in the family wasn’t easy for her and she looked up to her older brother. The day came, she was going to choose a faction, but after taking the placement test, she was confused since her results were unclear. She had five choices: Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the kind), Erudite (the intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless) and Candor (the honest). Beatrice’s parents were both in the faction of Abnegation, so it would make sense for her to choose Abnegation. But since the results were unclear, she decided that the faction she chose was her choice. The day came, and it was time to choose a faction. Her brother chose to leave Abnegation and went to Erudite – the intelligent ones. Beatrice was still confused about which faction she should choose. It ended up with her choosing the Dauntless faction – the fearless and brave ones. Because of this choice, both parents had lost their children to other factions. This meant that Beatrice had left the family and was ready to start a new life. Without knowing anyone and anything about what was about to happen.
The newly named Tris was introduced to her new faction. She didn’t really feel comfortable being in the faction at first, but she eventually adapted. One thing that she and the other new faction member didn’t know about was that they had to train and do certain exercises do still be in the faction. If you fail, you will be factionless - meaning that you got no faction (and you can’t choose a new faction again). Because of this, the Dauntless was taught and trained physically and mentally.
The effects used in these parts of the movie represented well what the author from the original book tried to create. During the mental part of the training, the instructor noticed something different about Tris. The mental training included that the instructor could see into the subject’s mind and thoughts. The mysterious instructor known as Four sees and finds out that Tris is a special type of person. Four used to be a strategic and a strong soldier for the Dauntless, but the times have changed. These types of people are known as a Divergent and are looked at as a threat to society because they have characteristics from all five factions and are harder to control. Because Divergents are usually killed or taken away, and Four decided to help Tris not making her get caught or killed. She is also already being watched by someone, that wants to change something big. Which makes the movie spark more questions while watching the movie. Tris fights to keep her spot in the faction while she finds out, step for step about something bad that is going to happen in the future. Suddenly one day the city was under a big threat and it was only up to Tris and her instructor Four to solve the problem. Would they be able to solve the problem and save the city’s current form or let the city change forever?
Overall, I liked the movie a lot because of its good use of effects and its futuristic take on what the world could look like. This take is typical for the science-fiction genre in movies. The movie relied heavily on effects, but these effects were perfect and extremely good for the production value it had – from the cities aerial view to the faction representations. One thing that made me really enjoy this movie after having seen it a couple of times now is the thought about that it could happen in the future. Today’s technology is constantly developing, and it could go too far, and this is one of those situations. I simply like having this thought since I think it is an interesting topic. Another reason why I like this movie is that the way we get a strong connection with the characters. We meet the characters through cinematic scenes, thoughts, and emotion. Which could change the whole plot of the movie – and I find this exciting. I do think that this movie has a moral and its moral being to slow down our technological growth. If the technology constantly develops to certain points where we can’t control it and it gets to the wrong hands. Scary things can happen to us – just like in this movie. Even though I have watched this movie and its sequels multiple times I can still recommend you watch it even if it is a few years old. ‘Divergent’ is definitely ‘old but gold’.