The power of print trumps movie magic

It is becoming a trend in today’s culture to make bestselling books into movies, and while true fans of those books normally rejoice when their favorite book comes to life, some are left empty when the movie doesn’t live up to the expectations the reader had envisioned the story.

When it comes to the book “Insurgent,” the second book in the Divergent series, I was unimpressed with how the movie portrayed the book.

Those who have not read the book or seen the movie, and wish to, there may be spoilers coming. I like to think I have an imaginative mind and when I read a book, whatever it may be, the characters, location, and even my senses are enhanced in my mind as I read.

In the first book, “Divergent,” the main character Tris comes from one of five factions-Abnegation, or the selfless ones.

The city has been divided into factions to keep order and give each person a purpose in the community. Once the children in the city reach a certain age they are each given a test to help them decide what faction to permanently be a part of; the one they were born into or a new one.

The factions include Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation, and Candor. Tris’ test comes back inconclusive and she decides to choose Dauntless as her new home. As she goes through training and eventually becomes a permanent member of Dauntless, Tris discovers why her test did not give her one faction-she was Divergent.

Divergent were feared and killed in the city and only one other person that Tris knew was Divergent was Four.

“Insurgent” begins with Tris, Four, Peter, Caleb-Tris’ brother, and Marcus-Four’s father, on the train to the fence that closes the city off from the outside world.

The four are on the run from the authorities after it was revealed that Tris and Four were Divergent. Jumping forward into the book, and countless conflicts, I want to point out the biggest flaw in movie making, especially when it is turning a book into a movie.

A movie cannot portray descriptions and the viewer does not get the same idea of the storyline like a reader does from a book. Tris has internal struggles from the beginning of “Divergent,” and in both movies that is evident; however, the viewer does not understand how much the death of Tris’ friends and family affect her.

Throughout the book and movie Tris blames herself for the conflicts and deaths, but at the same time she wants to help restore the city back to its “normal” order and keep her remaining relationships safe. A movie can only show so much of a character having internal conflicts before the movie becomes boring, and unfortunately some of the basis of the story is lost.

Another criticism of the movie compared to the book is how quickly everything happens.

Granted, in the book the events are relatively quick as well; however, the viewer does not always have time to process what is going on, or why, before the next conflict begins.

Books allow the reader to get descriptions and view the place and situation in his or her head; in a movie it is shown to the viewer how the producer wants it portrayed and some book lovers have more creative imaginations.

My biggest critique between the book and movie, was when Tris turned herself in and the entire process while she is inside. From the experiments to Tris’ execution—spoiler alert, she doesn’t actually die—I was displeased with the events played out in the movie during this section.

Tris is taken and used for experiments to examine her brain and give insight to how Divergents think. I will not explain every single instance the movie strays from the book, because it’s the entire time Tris spends as a captive, but the process was important for the audience to completely understand the story line.

If producers change the story, even slightly, it takes that experience from the viewer and only the reader knows the details.

I understand that movies cannot follow a book perfectly if that were the case the movies would be about four hours each at a minimum and there would be portions of the movie where audience members were bored. Unfortunately, Hollywood changes too many parts of a book sometimes and switches the story line just enough that changes how the story can flow after that.

The third installment of the Divergent series, “Allegiant,” will be divided up into two separate movies, one to be out in 2016, the other in 2017.

I am interested to see how the producers follow the story line, because the last book has the answers that the characters have been looking for. Also, how the producers handle the last main conflict and the ending of the book will be the deciding factor as to how well they follow the story line.

The final book left an impact on me, and my expectations for the last two movies is just as high.

If you have not yet read the books but have watched the movies, I recommend reading all three books and notice the differences between the movies and books. Both are excellent productions in their own way, but the reproduction of the books into  movies falls short.