Divergent

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bookworm
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Divergent

Post by bookworm »

Anyone see this?

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Shennifer
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Post by Shennifer »

I saw it yesterday. It was good, just not really mindblowing.

It had it's moments, I thought it was an interesting story and I enjoyed it, but it didn't blow me away.
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Post by bookworm »

Exactly my reaction. Not incredible, but not bad at all. I was a little worried about it because I heard it was getting pretty bad reviews, but I thought it was just fine.

I’ve been going to a lot of movies with my group recently, so we saw previews for this over and over again. The first time I thought it looked interesting, but I had no desire to actually see it. But each subsequent time it looked more and more appealing, and at around the same time we all changed our minds to ‘We might actually want to check this out’ and so last weekend we did.

I am glad we went, it was quite enjoyable. I knew nothing about the story, I didn’t even realize it was a series I thought it was one book, so I had no idea what to expect, I just followed along, but I liked it. The story idea was interesting, and I really liked the take on the villain motivation.
She’s not doing this from the clichéd ‘I’ll take over and be able to control everyone’ she really believes this is the way to ensure humanity survives. So she’s not really a villain, she’s actually a misguided hero.
So if you’ve been on the fence about this one, I encourage giving it a try. As a rental when it comes to dvd at least. You probably won’t find it outstanding, but I’m fairly certain you’ll at least find it enjoyable.
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Post by Knight Fisher »

I liked the book. So that makes me kind of want to see it. But I'm not sure I want to get invested in another series with how horrible she (the author) butchered the third book.
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Post by bookworm »

This movie struck me as a mix of Hunger Games and Ender’s Game. HG where we have a female protagonist who is forced to become the hope of her people against a dystopian society by challenging the social system put in place to maintain order. EG where we see these kids learn to become soldiers and watch them climb up through the program by facing various challenges. And they come together in a plot that I’m more intrigued by the more I think about it.
I totally get the idea behind the Faction system. It’s based on five key elements of personality, good elements, and if it were possible to actually have these different people focus on their specific quality then it would indeed produce a perfect society because everyone would be contributing their parts to create a good world on the whole, and because of the division of focus there wouldn’t be people looking to do their own thing and causing problems, whether out of actual malice or simply out of personal ambition.

The problem with the idea is that not everyone would or could conform because of human nature, as they said. And the problem with the system is in how they react to that fact. Instead of trying to work with human nature they want to just suppress it. If they could accept Divergents as the special perspective they are and use them to help improve the system everything may actually work out. But instead they choose to see them as threats because they refuse to acknowledge that the system does need improved and so they want to just kill them all.

What’s a bad thing is the system as it currently is, not the actual idea behind it. It’s really interesting to think about.
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Post by IrishTiger »

*yells* AHHHHHHHHH ](*,)

*cough* Sorry.

I don't plan on watching the movie.....at least not for a long time..like until my curiosity gets the better of me. But even before I cried my heart out in the third book, I wasn't excited for the movie.....I didn't approve of most of the cast. And they took out Uriah! *glares*

So, yeah. I don't plan on seeing it. I loved the first book. And now that I know how everything ends....*sighs*

:boohoo:

Sorry, that was far too dramatic. \:D/
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Post by Metal15 »

I've seen the trailer, but I probably won't go see it. I feel like it's too similar to most teen action stories such as the Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, etc. Maybe I'll read the books sometime, though, I dunno.
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Post by bookworm »

Man, the longer this ruminates in my brain the higher my opinion climbs. This has really grown on me a lot since my original impression in the theater. I still don’t think the movie itself was overly spectacular, but I am getting more and more taken with the story the more I think about it. I don’t know if it is actually this deep or if I’m just putting a lot into it myself, but there is some serious philosophy going on in here!
It all centers around what I pointed out in my first thoughts, of the villains not acting out of desire for control, but out of misguided pure desires. I’m on the verge of declaring that I actually liked this movie better than Catching Fire all because of this one detail. As I said before, this and the Hunger Games have strikingly similar basic plots, but the difference is in that key distinction.

Panem is your typical dystopian society. They control everything because they’re overlords, it’s what they do. So when Katniss fights back it’s against oppression. She’s the clear good guy battling the clear bad guys. This can make for a compelling plot, but there’s not much room for different viewpoints along the way. You just go along for the ride with her and cheer her on and boo the bad guys until the conclusion.

The world of Divergent is not your typical dystopia. There are corrupt and controlling powers, but they’re not doing it purely out of the desire to control, but because control is a necessary effect of the way they believe society needs to function to bring, in their twisted view, the greater good. When Triss fights back it’s not hero vs. villain or freedom vs. oppression, it’s a clash of differing ideologies. Under the way society currently operates there cannot be deviation; that is the only reason they make her an enemy. It’s not anything personal against her, it’s simply because of what she is and what she can do. She can subvert the system and cause them to lose control. So they have to stop her to maintain their control. But again, not because they want the control for the sake of being controllers, simply because they must maintain control to maintain what they see as the insurance of human survival.

This story isn’t a clear cut good vs. bad that you just watch for the ride, it makes you really think. The bad here isn’t in anyone’s motivations, only in methods. This isn’t just a typical teenage protagonist vs. the oppressors story, it’s a study of what human nature really is and different philosophies of how to approach the issues, both good and bad, that humanity causes for itself. It’s a story that’s intriguing, engaging, and at least for me incredibly captivating. It just took a little time to fully realize it.
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Post by Joy »

Knight Fisher wrote:I liked the book. So that makes me kind of want to see it. But I'm not sure I want to get invested in another series with how horrible she (the author) butchered the third book.
Yeah, my 2 friends and I are big fans of the series, but they think the last 2 are just as good as the first, where as I loved the first book, mehed the second, and didn't really like the last one (for reasons)
IrishTiger wrote:*yells* AHHHHHHHHH ](*,)

*cough* Sorry.

I don't plan on watching the movie.....at least not for a long time..like until my curiosity gets the better of me. But even before I cried my heart out in the third book, I wasn't excited for the movie.....I didn't approve of most of the cast. And they took out Uriah! *glares*

So, yeah. I don't plan on seeing it. I loved the first book. And now that I know how everything ends....*sighs*

:boohoo:

Sorry, that was far too dramatic. \:D/
I want to see the movie, but I'm not expecting it to adhere to the book too much, and definitely not be as good as the book.

Agree with all of what you said, except I do sorta plan on watching the movie.
And it's horrible that they took out Uriah, and yet they are still putting him in the next movie? What? It doesn't make ANY sense. (I suppose it might make some sense)
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Post by EvangelineWalker »

I really want to see the movie but I haven't gotten someone to go with me yet.

Loving your analysis, bookworm. I haven't thought about it that deeply, perhaps because I've only read the 1st book so far.
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Post by Charis »

I thought it would be REALLY BAD and redundant, but once I saw it my mind was blown. Better than THG and all the other YA storylines going around right now. But I also didn't read the books first, so I had no opposing idea as to who the cast should be. Haha.
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Post by bookworm »

I find it interesting that both Divergents that we know the origins of were from Abnegation. Do you think that’s just a coincidence, or is there more philosophy at work here?
I think growing up in that environment of being taught to put others above yourself may make them more likely to foster multiple qualities and therefore become Divergent, because you can use all the other qualities to aid your primary quality of service to others.
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Post by Charis »

Your theory's probably right. It was three divergents from Agnegation, actually.
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Post by Tea Ess »

That's an interesting perspective, bookworm. I just finished reading the book, and am hoping to see the movie (eventually). I heard that it stays relatively close to the book, which makes me happy.
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Post by bookworm »

Charis wrote:It was three divergents from Agnegation, actually.
I only know the two, is the third only in the book? Or in one of the later stories?

Edit:

Or do you mean the mom? Because she wasn't from Abnegation, she went there. She was originally Dauntless.
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Post by MustacheGirl »

I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!
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Post by bookworm »

What’s also interesting is that the Divergents both went to the same place: Dauntless. I wonder if there’s a philosophy to that as well. I’m less sure there’s a force driving Divergents to Dauntless than I am about a force causing Abnegation to be Divergent, but it’s possible.

If you’re centered in a desire of serving others then your two primary choices would be to stay in Abnegation and continue aiding in humanitarian service or to move to Dauntless and begin civil service. The purpose behind the Faction system is to force a limited perspective on people, meaning Divergents would have a fuller perspective. As such it could be that with their more complete perspective on society they may see Dauntless as the more vital line of service since Abnegation’s service of helping people will mean nothing if it isn’t overseen by Dauntless’ service of protecting the people.
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Post by IrishTiger »

Hmm, very interesting thoughts, Bookworm. I actually decided to search around the internet to see if I could find ay articles that talked about something similar and I found this: http://empiresandmangers.blogspot.com/2 ... rgent.html
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Post by bookworm »

If you were in that world (and not a Divergent) which Faction would you choose?
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Post by EvangelineWalker »

I probably should go in Abnegation but I wish I had enough courage to go into Dauntless but I'd probably like it most in Erudite--I love to learn things. If it all didn't go wrong, that is.
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