Book to Movie Comparison: Divergent

The book Divergent is a dystopian novel. In this world the city of Chicago is divided into factions and when you are 16 you take a test that helps you decide which faction to chose to live in for the rest of your life. When the main character Beatrice (Tris) Prior takes her test, she receives some interesting results and makes a surprising faction choice. 

Divergent

The movie Divergent came out in theaters in the United States on March 21, 2014 and was directed by Neil Burger. The main character, Tris, is played by Shailene Woodley.

Here are my thoughts (Contains Spoilers):

I was so excited to see this movie! I loved the book when I read it. You can find my book review here if you are interested. I gave the book 5 out of 5 stars and I give this move 4 out of 5 stars.

It was a good movie by itself, but when compared to the book there was so many differences that weren't really necessary.

There were a lot of things from the book that they did include. Tris's mom cutting her hair at the beginning, the zipline, but there was a lot that wasn't included or was changed.

The first thing that really bothered me was Shailene's hair. In the book, Tris's hair is blonde and Shailene's hair wasn't what I pictured at all. I know this is probably just me being picky, but her hair is brown and even with highlights it still looked brown and not blonde. It wouldn't have been difficult for her to dye her hair. Again, probably me being picky.

Second, what happened to visiting day? In the book Tris's mother comes to see her on visiting day, in the movie she just shows up. And she doesn't even tell Tris to go see her brother, Caleb. Tris just randomly decides to go see him. This is something that could have been fixed by adding one or two more sentences in when Tris and her mother are talking.

Edward's eye didn't get stabbed, they didn't show all of Tris's fears, and no dauntless cake? They left out Uriah and Al's crush on Tris. Tris wasn't the first person to fight in the book, she wasn't allowed to fight the first time because there were too many people. The ferris wheel scene was shorted, Tris wasn't practicing throwing knifes without a knife first. So many things didn't happen!

The worst thing they changed is the ending. Four was supposed to be on the computer helping control the simulation, but he was in one of the simulation chair, just sitting there, while the Erudite are controlling everything. Some parts of the second one aren't going to make sense now because they changed this. During capture the flag in the book they used paintball guns not these guns that feel like a real bullet hits you.

All of the changes were just so unnecessary.

Do I recommend seeing this movie? Yes, I think you should see it. Just don't expect it to be exactly like he book. Like I said before the movie by itself is great, but when compared to the book it just wasn't what I had hoped for. But, the book is always better than the movie anyway.