Has anyone seen the film DIVERGENT? ((spoiler alert))

[yuiyoshida]

PLOT: In a futuristic dystopian Chicago, the survivors of a mysterious great war live in what's left of the downtown behind a great wall keeping something unknown out, the climate is unexplainedly dry and mild, with the Lake dried up. The society is divided into Six factions: Abnegation (the selfless, pejoratively called stiffs), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent), and those not faction members are simply called Factionless. Members join a faction based on their preference but are initially given a suggestion by an aptitude test. Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) has grown up in Abnegation, the faction that runs the government, yet has always been fascinated by Dauntless. Her father, Andrew (Tony Goldwyn), serves on the ruling council along with the head of Abnegation, Marcus Eaton (Ray Stevenson).



Every year, 16-year-olds undergo a serum-based aptitude test that indicates the faction into which they would best fit and informs their choice at the Choosing Ceremony. Beatrice takes the test with a Dauntless woman named Tori (Maggie Q) as her proctor. Her test shows attributes of three factions (Abnegation, Erudite and Dauntless), meaning she is Divergent. Tori records her result as Abnegation and warns her to keep the true result a secret, telling her that since Divergents can think independently and the government therefore cannot control them, they are considered threats to the existing social order.

more...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_%28film%29

This is probably the most creative story I have seen come out of Hollywood of late. I thought the entire idea of the film was fascinating and could even be a possibility in the future. It really wasn't that far fetched as some Sci-fi movies could be. Would love your take on it...

[mackerel]

1. My daughter loved that movie.

[yuiyoshida]

2. cool...

I was hoping people would talk about the premise of the movie..it was so unique and had a very creative story.

[fizzgig]

3. yeah, i got to look at james franco

but they ruined it with the rape scene they shoehorned in.

[yuiyoshida]

4. the drug that

induced fears was bizarre, you have to wonder who would even invent something like that, unless to control people. Great movie though...

[NewJeffCT]

5. the movie or the book?

Liked the book, but thought the movie was only so-so. I read the books around the same time as my daughter, who also felt the same way. I thought the movie telegraphed some of the surprises from the book and didn't develop the minor characters as much.

It also suffers from the weak third book, like many of these Young Adult dystopian trilogies that are popular now. (I also read The Hunger Games series and thought that 3rd book was kind of weak compared to the first two as well)

While she's a good actress, Shailene Woodley is tall and pretty and does a good job with the role - Tris in the books is small & plain looking. They also changed one of the better scenes from the book - where Tris tells Jeanine "I'm Dauntless!" - in the movies, she says, "I'm Divergent."

I'm hoping Marie Lu's "Champion" series can be made into a movie down the road - I thought it was a better overall series.

[yuiyoshida]

6. Wow okay that makes sense

That there was a book. Hollywood still lacks creativity I guess when it comes to scripts and plots.. much of it the same crap. They used to do a lot more from books, but not as well as the books ever are.

I don't look forward to them re-creating GHOST IN A SHELL, from the Japanese Manga and Anime. They will not make it in Japan, nor use any of the Japanese characters but have an all American Cast based in Los Angeles. That sucks, but hey I guess, to them, no one can relate to the original characters... which sucks.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. A bit of advice,

Don't read the wiki plots for book two and three for Divergent. There's a major plot twist which will ruin the enjoyment of the story.

[yuiyoshida]

9. I would love to read the books...

I wonder if there will be Divergent sequel (Movie) coming out. It certainly could be a jumping point into the next phase of their lives.. (Four and Tris).

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Insurgent is due next month.

The following trailer will require a lot of bandwidth:

http://www.thedivergentseries.com/#videos

[yuiyoshida]

11. wow!

YAY, look forward to seeing it!

[Baitball Blogger]

7. The idea of the class society was a good idea for a Young Adult genre

It helped explain basic social structure along the lines of personality traits (which I believe was first associated with socialist ideology. Under that model, people were assigned jobs for the greater good of the society, based on their personalities and societal needs. Very basic.)

But I saw another version of this stymied view in an interview with Laura Bush. Based on her comments, I saw a world perspective that I hadn't even considered before because it was so over-simplified. But, it really did seem to me that she assumed that there were people who would accept lower financial compensation because they were nurturer-types. In other words, they would always gravitate to those kind of societal jobs, like teaching, even though the financial rewards were minimal because that's where they felt personal gratification.

By comparison, more ambitious people, (read corruptible) could be counted on to become entrepreneurs and spur the economy -- if someone would only just loosen up the regulation bridles.

I really do believe that Bush, and the Republican viewpoint, in general, is really that over-simplified in their world outlook. What they don't take into account is what happens to society over a period of time when corruption is allowed to run amok long enough. Not only do you have "the leaders" gaming the system to their benefit, but, eventually, the nurture society begins to collapse, because these people are being taken advantage of.

Society is far more complicated in real life. Lots of overlap. People who are essentially greedy, learn to hide their intentions by joining charitable organizations. Over time, these charitable organizations are taken-over by people who just use it as a shield, to hide their selfish intentions. And, as another example, teaching jobs are going to a lot of Republican wives, who see it as a second income and are dismissive about the job as a career.

Really, nothing is as simplified as the class society in Divergent, but it is a good start for Young Adults to see how personality traits do play a role in the elasticity of our society. We definitely would implode like Rome, if not for the counter-forces fighting against that implosion.

I think our society is in one of those struggles now.

[NewJeffCT]

12. nice summary

I've been reading a lot of the YA books lately so I can discuss with my daughter, if necessary. So, I've read through the Hunger Games series, the Divergent series, Legend/Prodigy/Champion by Marie Lu, Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, Enclave/Outpost/Horde by Ann Aguirre (almost finished with that one), as well as just starting the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.

I'm just happy she's reading a lot again the past few years. It took her a while to find books she was interested in again after Harry Potter. (I think she's currently reading Alice in Zombieland)

[Baitball Blogger]

13. The Enclave title sounds intriguing.

Lord knows I've been using that term a lot in my own writing.

[NewJeffCT]

14. It's another Dystopian book

mankind decimated by war & plague.

I liked Marie Lu's books as well, as you can tell she's pretty liberal - while not said outright, the earth was ravaged by the fallout from global warming - the western US - where most of the story takes place - is essentially a banana republic.

http://www.amazon.com/Enclave-Ann-Aguirre/dp/0312650086/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=