Divergent Film Review & Event Recap

On Monday, I was fortunate enough to attend the Australian premiere of Divergent. Confession: When I first read Divergent back in April 2013, I enjoyed it but I felt it was over-hyped. Then much later on in the year I re-read it before continuing with the other two and loved it. It became one of my favourite books and I could definitely understand the hype. Now I am love with the series to an unhealthy extent, so I needed this movie to be awesome. It definitely was, but I'll get to that later.

Anyhow I was invited by the lovely Rosie at Entertainment One to attend the Sydney premiere in the city. My lovely guest for the night was my mom and there I saw Jaz and her friend, it was nice to see them. Sadly no celebs from the movie were there but Rosie got me to do media for all the Australian celebrities that were there. I got to stand in this ropped off section with the photographers and I had this cool lanyard that said I was part of the media. I felt really privileged to be able to take snaps of the local talent and be included in it all. I don't know if the IPhone 5 I was using was as grand as the big cameras being used next to me but I managed to get plenty of pictures. Here are just some of the celebrity photos I took on the night:

Once we were permitted entry into the cinema the worker pointed us to the VIP section and much to my surprise I was sitting with the people I'd photographed. It was so awesome, I'm pretty sure that my Mother and I were the only people in that area who hadn't been part of some show. I was sitting

 next to Richard Wilkinson from the today show and whilst I used a very lame 'How much is that Ice Cream you're eating?' line to break the ice, our conversation lasted all of 10 seconds. But I did have a conversation with X factor host and actor, Luke Jacobz and ex-voice contestant Brittney Cairns. Luke Jacobz was so nice, he complimented my hair! It was pretty awesome. Brittney has an incredible voice and was my pick to win in the first season of 'The Voice', so meeting her and getting a photo was great! Munching on some popcorn and sour skittles (thanks mom) I was filled with a bundle of excitement as the movie began. Big thanks to Rosie and Entertainment One for allowing me to take part in this fun night!

Divergent Movie Review -

Divergent was so good that I can't possibly pick a starting point for this review. Aside from a few blurry transitions (was this just me and my blurry eyesight) the cinematography was so good! Everything was clear and in a way colourful - is that a strange thing to say when the movie mostly consists of abnegation grays and dauntless blacks? The world-building was done perfectly, it was different to what I'd imagined (especially the pit) but also a lot cooler. It was a lot more simple and futuristic but that helped to convey the dystopian Chicago image.

I loved the introduction of all the different factions and I felt like the voice-over intro by Tris explained things fairly well. It was cool identifying all the different factions in their colours but the coolest was of course, seeing Dauntless making their big entrance. I would have loved a longer stimulation in the Aptitude test scene, but I thought it was a very effective and impactful scene. Very cool! Once Tris made her choice at the Choosing Ceremony, seeing her run with Dauntless was one of the coolest scenes. The music in the background was perfect for the atmosphere of the scene and the whole energy of it. When the Dauntless were running to catch the train and then jumping to get into it and then to get off of it, I was squealing the whole time. I really loved that scene as well as the jump into the Dauntless compound. They aced it!

The Dauntless headquarters were as I said different but cool. Being introduced to Christina, Will and Al was really sweet but obviously the best intro was Four. He really pulled off the emotionally guarded slightly mean trainer aspect of his character and him Tris and Christina had some really funny lines which had both my mother and I cracking up. I loved the capture the flag scene as well as the ziplining scenes, they were done so well which was great since they are such important memories for Tris. But I so badly wanted Uriah and the dauntless born gang to be the ones zip-ling with her instead of some random. But Uriah's name was on the electronic score board which made me really happy.

The fear stimulations were cool but I felt like some of it was confusing and lacked explanation (I wanted them to discuss more on her Four fear). It for some reason really irked me that they didn't show all 6 of Tris's fears, I think they only showed 3 which would mean she had less fears than Four? But despite this it was a really cool scene and it had great visuals. The film had some changes and exclusions of scenes but it had great pacing and so many good scenes that it did matter to me.

Shailene Woodly is the 'it girl' at moment and with reason. She did a great job of portraying both the vulnerable and curious side to Tris and the badass determined one. I would have ideally loved more bad ass but she had a good balance of the two that was true to the way that Veronica Roth wrote her to be. Can I say that she has the saddest cry on the planet? I was almost brought to tears just by her sadness. Theo James, what a gorgeous surprise package he was! He was the perfect Four and it's hard to believe I ever doubted that he would be, but I did originally. Not only do both mom and I agree he is totally handsome but he played the part really well. Fourtris had my heart beating abnormally fast and I shall continue to ship them for all of eternity.

Al and Will looked a lot a like which confused my mom and sometimes me. Al wasn't as close to Tris which made a specific scene less impactful then it was in the book. Miles Teller as Peter was another casting choice I wasn't sure of but he was a much more likeable Peter. He was more of a bully than a psychotic rude head and he was actually pretty funny. Ansel Elgort did good as Caleb because he managed to makes us a bit suspicious of his character. Jeanine Matthews was played really coldly and Kate Winslet did quite good.

I loved the action scenes, they were epic! But basically I loved all of the scenes. After seeing the movie I just felt really proud to be a part of the Divergent fandom, they did a excellent job with the film. I didn't have the highest expectations when I saw the teaser for it but I was so satisfied with the outcome. I'm already counting down the minutes for Insurgent and the DVD for Divergent. It's a movie that not only fans can enjoy, it's got elements of everything for all audiences. It's a truly captivating movie and I hope I can see it again.