Long-winded while straying from the book

Rating: 5/10 (23 March 2014)

This book to movie adaptation wasn't terrible, especially if your only knowledge of Divergent was from the trailer. However, faithful readers of the book will be sorrily disappointed. The movie follows our young soon to be hero Beatrice Prior as she tries to decide which faction to choose to live in for the rest of her life. In her world, society is broken up into five factions: Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, Candor, and Dauntless. Once an individual turns 16, a test is administered that lets you know which faction you should choose. Beatrice ends up choosing Dauntless after being told her testing results were inconclusive because she's divergent, and that's the biggest problem I have with this movie.
In the book, this information is conveyed with the utmost importance. Divergence is serious, deadly serious. If anyone were to find out her secret, Beatrice would be dead on the spot. In the movie however, the divergent reveal is casual in comparison. In fact, everyone seems to know that divergents are being hunted, and the leader of this man-hunt, who also happens to be the head of Erudite, Jeanine, is all over the Dauntless compound. In the book Erudite's shocking involvement isn't discovered until much later, which allows all the other clues laid throughout the book to fall into place. In the movie, it's a given.
I can understand that some changes need to be made for book to movie adaptations, but the changes made here add nothing to the story. In fact, they greatly diminish it. There is no longer the constant threat of being discovered a divergent, because the severity of being a divergent is so down played. Erudite's betrayal to Abnegation isn't a real surprise the way it's laid out in the movie, and Beatrice's Dauntless training doesn't show the harshness, cut-throat, and violent way situations were handled.
There are many other finer points to be made surrounding topics like Four and Beatrice's relationship, Beatrice's relationship with her family, and much more, but they're too long to list. All in all if you haven't read the book, the only drawback to this movie is its length, coming in at just under 3 hours. If you're a fan of the book however, prepare to be disappointed, as this is a greatly watered down version of Veronica Roth's thriller.