Favorite Movie Series - Post 1 - Divergent
I’m starting a collection of posts called the favorite movie series, in which I will post random thoughts and analysis about movies that I particularly liked. The first movie in the series shall be Divergent (Like, the movie Divergent, not some other movie being divergent, cue rimshot.). As you may have already assumed, spoilers lay ahead.
The first thing I really liked about the plot of the movie is the division of the human race into the factions created after Chicago is transformed into a post-apocalyptic dystopia. This idea, although not new, really got me interested partially because of my history as a MMORPG player. For most RPGs during character selection, players need to pick a “race” or “type” which can then even be broken down further into groups and etc and throughout the game every character has different roles depending on the type they chose. For me to see this kind of idea presented in a movie was really cool. The fact that each faction also has it’s own dress code really visually enhances the idea of divided groups working together to sustain the remainder of humanity.
Just like in my childhood video games, the different factions even have legit symbols and names:
Pretty interesting right? Anyway, on to the nitty gritty.
The movie begins with the protagonist, Beatrice, getting ready in the morning for the exam that will define her future (the SAT. Just kidding, we are all more than numbers and letters on a piece of paper). The exam she was going to take was a aptitude test that would determine which faction her personality best matches. The test is used as a guide to help children of age 16 choose which faction they want to devote themselves to. The test’s results were inconclusive, and her test administrator informed her that she was divergent, and a threat. Divergence simply met her mind worked in too many different ways to be objectively categorized into a faction. The reason divergent humans are a threat is because they do not fit in the very ordered structure of humanity and cannot be controlled.
It was at this part in the movie where I began to see the thematic basis of the film. It was pretty much a combination of the cliche “fitting in” theme and the always-interesting “governmental oppression/big brother is watching” theme. These two things, coupled with a sort of Hunger Games style mood, made the movie extremely interesting for me.
The plot was pretty simple, it depicted Beatrice’s journey into Dauntless after being Abnegation born and how she and Four (a Dauntless initiate instructor who is also divergent) stop Erudite from overthrowing Abnegation as the leaders of Chicago. The one thing that I cannot get myself to like is how Erudite transformed all of Dauntless into their own army using mind control. I mean, the fact that one faction took complete control of another so that they could do their bidding is an absolutely fantastic idea, but it was HOW they did it: mind control serum. I mean come on really? And the thing that really put salt in my wound is that divergent humans are immune to it. The entire movie I was so interested because Beatrice (or Tris, as her Dauntless name is) had to blend in with the rest of Dauntless because she truly did not belong anywhere. Her struggle, both mental and physical was very heavily depicted in the first quarter of the movie. Then all of a sudden, not belonging anywhere granted her magic serum stopping powers.
Aside from this weak conflict introduction, the movie recovered rather nicely in the events that followed. The scenes unfolded with Erudite slowly taking over Abnegation and Tris and Four trying to save the remaining population. Every scene of the movie was extremely visually satisfying in my opinion and I was interested enough to say that I would probably watch this movie again with friends who have not seen it yet.
Before I end this post I also want to touch upon my absolute most favorite part of Divergent, and any movie for that matter. the soundtrack. Whoever decided to bring Junkie XL on board did us a favor. Hans Zimmer was also involved. I really love movie soundtracks, but I’ll save that discussion for a different post.
Shoutout to Veronica Roth.