Divergent (better late than never?)

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Minor spoilers may follow. Enter at your own risk.

I actually watched "Divergent" opening night. (And, for the record, wrote this post the day after. But didn't get around to posting it till now. Whoops.) I thought the theater would be completely packed. My experiences with watching YA adaptations during the first week of release led me to think that it would be difficult to get a seat. There were about five people in the whole theater when I got there roughly half an hour early, although the place did fill up quickly. Although the Divergent trilogy is popular, it definitely has not yet hit Harry Potter and Hunger Games level of fame.

"Divergent" has been received fairly well by fans, but critics are slamming it. I think part of this is due to the movie trying to cater to the book's fans (it definitely helps to have read the whole series to fill in the "gaps" in the film), and part of this is due to "Catching Fire"'s huge success. "Catching Fire" is pretty much the perfect example of a YA book adaptation, and it set the bar pretty high. Although "Divergent" does a great job at bringing the story of the book to life, it's not quite at "Catching Fire" level.

Some things that I loved about "Divergent": Well, Shailene Woodley, for starters. I disliked Tris in the books, I thought she was too unrelatable, and she seemed very violent and volatile, especially in the second and third books. However, I found Tris to be much more relatable in the movie. She wasn't too violent, and I felt that her strength was portrayed accurately for a girl her age. Shailene Woodley is a terrific actress and brought a much needed human element to the character of Beatrice Prior, and this is largely what made the movie for me.

The cast as a whole did a fantastic job. I especially enjoyed Theo James as Four (the last thing I saw him do was this stellar performance, so I applaud him for being, you know, alive and a semi-decent guy in "Divergent"), Zoe Kravitz as Christina (my personal favorite book character, so I'm glad she did her justice), Ashley Judd as Tris's mom, and last but definitely not least, Kate Winslet as the villainous Jeanine Matthews. I'm a bit biased, as I love Kate Winslet and I firmly believe she can do no wrong, but she makes a great villain. She was definitely given more screen time in the film than she should have been, but…it's Kate Winslet. When you cast Kate Winslet as your film's baddie, you use her.

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As a whole, "Divergent" did a good job at balancing the amount of violence used in the film. In the book, Dauntless is portrayed as completely brutal (someone gets stabbed in the eye with a knife while sleeping, for example). The movie does a good job at getting across the startling violence of the Dauntless without getting too crazy (the stabbing scene, although filmed on set, did not make it into the final cut of the movie). There's still that sense of life-or-death danger found in the book though. Eric forces initiate Christina to hang over a ledge to teach her a lesson. Al is so heartbroken that Tris won't forgive him, he makes a horrible choice. The initiates are made to fight people much bigger and stronger than they are, and they react as any human being would (for example, no matter how much last-minute advice Four gave me, there is no way I could avoid getting knocked out when facing Peter in the ring…just like Tris). The film keeps the intensity high will avoiding that "R" rating.

The film is confusing if you haven't previously read the book…it is definitely made just for the fans. If you are a fan of the book Divergent, chances are you'll really like the movie too. I personally enjoyed the film more than the book (mostly due to the fact that this time around, I could relate to the main character), and I think it's really well done. Go see it, and support YA book adaptations and cool lead female characters!