All the Divergent feels...

So yesterday Divergent was released in cinemas here in Australia!

Now, I’m not going to say that I’m a 30-something singleton who booked an advanced ticket and went on their own, like a desperate loser with no friends, to see the movie on opening day. No. What I will say is that I am very organized and pre-booked a ticket to avoid the crowds, and I was a little older than most of the people in the theatre but its okay because I still think like a teen and love YA to death. And I may or may not have been on my own (I was).

There has been a lot of advertisement for the movie here in Australia and the general consensus was that it was going to be popular. There was hype for the opening day, mostly from die-hard fans of the books (let’s be honest, if you’re a fan of the books then you are a die-hard fan. There is no in-between.) In the lead-up to the release I was thinking about the books and the characters. I really thought that Shailene Woodley would nail Tris, she just seemed so right for the part. Theo James as Four, I was a bit uncertain. But still, I went into the movie theatre thinking that the movie would be good, and I was not disappointed. In fact, it was awesome!

The Divergent world came to life on the screen. The settings were fantastic, the way they portrayed post-war Chicago was brilliant, and the opening scenes really gave me that wow-factor that I was hoping for. Every set, costume etc. seemed perfect and you felt like you were walking around in the pages of the book. The casting of most of the main characters was spot-on. My hesitation about Theo James as Four was blown out of the water as soon as he spoke to Tris after she jumped. His voice!! *drools*. The only characters that I felt didn’t match the book were Peter and Al. Peter was perfect attitude wise, but he didn’t look as I imagined him. The character of Al just didn’t have much impact on-screen, you didn’t really see his friendship with Tris develop like you do in the books.

They changed the story a little, but not enough to impact and make the movie different from the book. One small thing that they cut out… when the initiates are celebrating passing the tests and finally being accepted into Dauntless, Four walks over to Tris and congratulates her and they kiss in front of everyone. That scene was not in the movie and it did make me a little sad *fangirl tears*.  I felt that in the book, there were lots of small moments between Tris and Four that were not portrayed on screen, and the sexual tension between the two characters wasn’t there fully until the kiss scene. That scene was woah and omg and drool. It was nice. After that, you really felt the chemistry between the two of them.

Sneak peek of my favourite scene ;) 

The good news is that I have found a friend (who knew I had any!) who is interested in seeing the movie, so I will be going again next week. There was just so much to take in so I am hoping that a second viewing will make it even better!

I'd be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on the movie! Did you love it? Hate it? Was there anything missing you would have loved to have seen included?