Divergent
Having seen as many movies as I have, I was very surprised and taken back by this film, Divergent. Before seeing it for the first time, I only saw the trailer a couple times, but it was enough to get me interested enough to see it. I actually chose between this movie and The Hunger Games, cause in some ways they kinda look like the same movie: young girl doesn’t know who she is, goes through all these challenges and realizes she’s special, with some cool looking CGI.
I think the big thing that turned me off about HG was the clothing, cause I’m not really interested in those old movies, or movies that look like they take place in the 1500’s or whatever lol. Eventually I saw the first HG for the first time and realized that it was nothing like Divergent at all, atleast to me. Sure they both have female lead roles and they both have obstacles and such, but that’s basically it and it was so boring I couldn’t even finish it, especially given the over 2 hour runtime. Divergent is also over 2 hours but to me it makes more use of that time and is more entertaining and easier to understand. I talk more about this in the society blog so I won’t do that here, but you get the picture.
(as of this post I still haven’t written or posted that blog but eventually I will, so stay tuned for that, cause its huge)
But to put it bluntly, Divergent is my favorite movie in the last 5-6 years. The story is so simple, yet so complex and I didn’t know how complex it was till I started catching it on cable after doing my review. Like most of the new movies I do, I do the review on my 2nd viewing of the movie. The 2nd viewing is cool cause 99% of the time you always spot something new, which you can then add to your review. But even then, I still miss things, even though (unlike most movie reviewers) I’m not just talkin about 2-3 different scenes. I talk about all the scenes, and I still miss things lol.
It’s weird cause I did this review back in 2015 right before Godzilla. My review for Godzilla was about 15 pages long, and even as I type this I feel as though I haven’t missed anything, and I haven’t come up with any new interpretations since. My review of Divergent was pretty basic, but as I began to catch the movie on cable I began to see so many more interpretations in here. I think the reason why I picked up on Godzilla’s interpretations more is cause I grew up with the old movies as a kid, whereas Divergent was a new movie for me at the time.
But anyway, alot of em can also be said for other Society movies likes Harry Potter, Maze Runner etc and I have a separate blog for those (referring to Society) I noticed this in Harry Potter even when I was younger, but (with all due respect to that franchise) I think Divergent did it better. I chose this movie over HG solely on that big scene where Tris and Four are on the rope above the city. I chose it just for that one scene but its now one of my favorite movies of all time, its funny how that works lol.
So anyway, as with all my walkthroughs I’m just gonna break down all the scenes using pictures. What I will say though is that (atleast for me) watching the movie with the black bars (2:35 aspect ratio) is so much better. On cable this movie uses the camera crop, so it gives the film this very boxed-in look which kinda destroys it visually. Thankfully the pictures here are in 2:35
I think the big thing that turned me off about HG was the clothing, cause I’m not really interested in those old movies, or movies that look like they take place in the 1500’s or whatever lol. Eventually I saw the first HG for the first time and realized that it was nothing like Divergent at all, atleast to me. Sure they both have female lead roles and they both have obstacles and such, but that’s basically it and it was so boring I couldn’t even finish it, especially given the over 2 hour runtime. Divergent is also over 2 hours but to me it makes more use of that time and is more entertaining and easier to understand. I talk more about this in the society blog so I won’t do that here, but you get the picture.
(as of this post I still haven’t written or posted that blog but eventually I will, so stay tuned for that, cause its huge)
But to put it bluntly, Divergent is my favorite movie in the last 5-6 years. The story is so simple, yet so complex and I didn’t know how complex it was till I started catching it on cable after doing my review. Like most of the new movies I do, I do the review on my 2nd viewing of the movie. The 2nd viewing is cool cause 99% of the time you always spot something new, which you can then add to your review. But even then, I still miss things, even though (unlike most movie reviewers) I’m not just talkin about 2-3 different scenes. I talk about all the scenes, and I still miss things lol.
It’s weird cause I did this review back in 2015 right before Godzilla. My review for Godzilla was about 15 pages long, and even as I type this I feel as though I haven’t missed anything, and I haven’t come up with any new interpretations since. My review of Divergent was pretty basic, but as I began to catch the movie on cable I began to see so many more interpretations in here. I think the reason why I picked up on Godzilla’s interpretations more is cause I grew up with the old movies as a kid, whereas Divergent was a new movie for me at the time.
But anyway, alot of em can also be said for other Society movies likes Harry Potter, Maze Runner etc and I have a separate blog for those (referring to Society) I noticed this in Harry Potter even when I was younger, but (with all due respect to that franchise) I think Divergent did it better. I chose this movie over HG solely on that big scene where Tris and Four are on the rope above the city. I chose it just for that one scene but its now one of my favorite movies of all time, its funny how that works lol.
So anyway, as with all my walkthroughs I’m just gonna break down all the scenes using pictures. What I will say though is that (atleast for me) watching the movie with the black bars (2:35 aspect ratio) is so much better. On cable this movie uses the camera crop, so it gives the film this very boxed-in look which kinda destroys it visually. Thankfully the pictures here are in 2:35
1. Love this shot of the giant wall…
2. Love the buildings, and as we get shots of the city, Tris talks about the different factions: Abnegation, Dauntless, etc. It’s alot like Harry Potter, and each represent a different personality: bravery, honesty, etc.
3. I read somewhere that Shailene Woodley was the only actress who auditioned for the role, but I think its BS.
4. In this scene her mother is telling her not to look in the mirror too long. This scene probably represents people who don’t like how they look and / or people who are ashamed of who they are.
5. I hate the brother, and he’s such a dweeb lol. He also played the football player boyfriend in Carrie and wasn’t convincing in the slightest either.
6. I also hate him too, Miles Teller…
7. I like her…
8. This is where they hook Tris up Matrix-style to the machine to try and read her mind, but also see what she likes / what she fears.
9. Drinking an unknown glass. Scenes like this are also in Maze Runner and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
10. This is probably about 20-30 mins into the movie, but in doing this little analysis, this was actually the last scene I figured out, and it’s a big one. I describe it as being able to look at yourself in the mirror as you face your fear.
11. When the dog growls at her, you can tell she’s scared, but she doesn’t move.
12. This little girl is supposed to be her, when she was young, and afraid of alotta things.
13. The dog knows she was young and afraid, so he goes after her, but Tris’ older self jumps on him, being grown and not afraid anymore.
14. Girl tells her she’s Divergent…
15. I love when Ellie Goulding’s song plays during this scene, her voice is beautiful…
16. They meet the headmaster Jeanine (J)
17. Tris says the test should tell her where to go, but J tells her she’s still free to choose. She’s really telling us to not let others make our decisions in life for us.
18. This is basically the same scene from Harry Potter, where they come up and get placed in their own little groups. The two colors that stand out are orange and blue, and if you read my walkthrough for The Neverending Story I noted how the color blue means sadness, so that group must be the kind / soft spoken type.
19. Sometimes to find who you are you have to sacrifice blood…
20a 20b. CGI train lol. But the idea here is that when life is ready to move, you gotta be ready or get left behind.
21. You also have to know when to let go, and move on…
22. My favorite character, Eric. His neck tattoo is so badass lol.
23a 23b. Here she’s about to jump down a dark hole. The idea here is taking a chance, even when you don’t know what the results will be.
24. They meet Four and he takes them around the facility. It’s like a college campus.
25. This is a pretty basic scene, but it reminds me of the scenes from Harry Potter and Pacific Rim. You sit down trying to relax, but you start talkin to the people around you and realise whether they agree or disagree with you. You also realise your all there for the same reason.