On Friday, March 21, 2014, Divergent, the popular action-adventure film was finally released, leaving some Divergent fans smiling in satisfaction and others obstinately grim.

  This action-packed movie was based on author Veronica Roth’s best-selling post apocalyptic trilogy, Divergent. At its core, the plot’s dilemma revolves around adolescence and identity in which all sixteen-year-olds must choose to live among one of society’s five factions for the rest of their lives. This means remaining in their homeland or leaving their loved ones, but once the choice is made, it would be irreversible. The factions include the following: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (the honest), and Dauntless (the brave). Tris, the protagonist played by Shailene Woodley, comes from Abnegation, yet she finds herself in awe of the bravery of Dauntless. In the midst of confusion and decisions, one small group emerges from the factions: Divergent. Divergents, whom consist of all five virtues, are wanted by the higher authority because they cannot be ordered nor controlled.

  Natalie Francis (11) commented, “I would choose to be in Abnegation because I love to give service to other people and have no problem being selfless. Being a Divergent, on the other hand, would be a different story. Having all those values and using them to do good would be awesome [as well].” Although many Divergent fans have waited for this film, many critics harshly argued that the movie did not live up to the book’s standards. Josh Patterson from The Guardian strongly stated, “Indeed, like most teenagers, this movie, far from wanting to be different, inwardly screams that it just wants to be like all the other kids and that nobody understands them.”

  Many critics asked themselves whether Shailene Woodley would become the next Jennifer Lawrence from The Hunger Games before the success of this film. Critics from rottentomatoes.com explained that the film would not necessarily be comparable to The Hunger Games. The plot evolved slowly due to the mass amount of training footage, disengaging the audience at a certain point. The film struggled to capture the attention of the audience again as the climax was briskly forced into the ending scenes.  However, Divergent received mixed reviews from both sides of the spectrum; the movie received a low two stars from rottentomatoes and a high four stars from imdb.com.

  Brandon Wolfson (10) said, “The movie wasn’t as great as to be expected and most of it consisted of training, but I would still suggest that people go and watch it.” Many supporters, like Wolfson, were still able to appreciate the film itself, although the novel would still be the one that hit home.