Not a better love story than Twilight

Rating: 2/10 (24 March 2014)

I'm a 19 year-old female and yes, I've read Divergent and am currently on the third book in the series. It is honestly one of my favorite book series'. With that said I'd like to say that I was wary about seeing this movie at first because I had heard some bad things about it, but I figured it couldn't be THAT bad. I was wrong. Before the opening credits had even finished, I knew I would be disappointed.
1. I realize that it's hard for directors and writers to fit all of the events from the book into a 120-ish minute movie, but I just can't comprehend how they concluded that this would be the best way to execute the story. Key events were missing and/or changed. Many characters that play an important role in later books are completely cut from the movie, thus probably resulting in more plot/event changing in later movies. Basically a movie with the same name and some similar characters to Roth's book, but other than that, almost nothing in common.
2. Watching the movie, it felt like the actors were trying too hard. The whole movie seemed quite superficial and all of the characters were unbelievable. They were saying their correct lines but it just didn't seem genuine at any point, probably because the writers were rushing to fit everything into the time limit. There were a lot of very cheesy moments that made me roll my eyes or cringe at how awkward they were. Four (Theo James) was probably the most believable character. And that's being generous. I suppose it's not the cast's' fault for being given what they had to work with.
3. It was way too easy for the main characters. Tris gets kicked out of Dauntless, goes to the train and just is invited back in without a second thought. Then at the end Marcus just happens to know where the Erudite are controlling the simulation and when Tris and Four are trying to stop Jeanine there just HAPPENS to be a serum and injector right by Tris and Four?
4. The movie seemed way too rushed. It was like the writers were trying to fit a whole story in so they wouldn't make book fans angry, which was completely pointless since half the story was changed anyways. Tris' mom and Will both die, Tris finds her dad and other surviving abnegation, Marcus knows where the Erudite are controlling the Dauntless and four of them randomly leave the other abnegation without any explanation to break into the Dauntless headquarters that they automatically find and stop Jeanine all in under 10 minutes. At least the directors found a way to squeeze it all in...? I can't even imagine what it would've been like seeing this movie without having read the book. Too many questions were left unanswered. I could barely keep up and I've read the book. So many important plot points or ideas were never touched or explained in the way the book does. We never get to actually become attached to any characters so by the time Tris' parents both die I couldn't bring myself to care. At the same time it felt painfully slow. When the movie finally gets to the "good" part (when the mind-controlled Dauntless invade Abnegation) I was more than ready to leave the theater and pondering what I'd be having for dinner.
5.The relationship between Tris and Four did not seem real at all and felt forced. throughout most of the movie Four is being a complete asshole (more, in my opinion, than in the book.) to the point where it seems completely unlikely that he and Tris could ever be anything even close to friends and then all of a sudden he wants to let Tris inside his head, randomly kiss her, and then hold hands going off to battle before the finale scene were he and Tris exchange "I love you"s. It happened way too fast for it to be a real relationship. This movie really made me appreciate the slow-churning romances in hunger games and even the vampire-werewolf love triangle movie that must-not-be-named.
My advice is that if you're ever planning on reading the books (which I highly recommend) DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE FIRST. This confusing, rushed, unrealistic movie "Based on the book series" will probably discourage you from reading the books.
Overall I really don't see how they are going to make a second movie anything like the second book. Hopefully they'll go the twilight/Hunger games route and get a new director for the second movie. Or maybe just forget they ever made the first.