Review of Divergent (2014) by Britt G — 09 Nov 2015

This movie deserves more attention and respect; it is constantly compared to The Hunger Games as the 'bad copy'. I will prove those people wrong after everyone reads my review. Divergent starts in the setting of a post-apocalyptic closed off city where the city is ruled under totalitarian government and the people of the city are split into 5 distinct factions: Abnegation, Dauntless, Candor, Amity, Erudite. These factions are chosen at the Choosing Ceremony by individuals when kids reach the age of 16. They receive injections of a serum and they go through a series of aptitude tests which are supposed to give them results on which faction they should choose based on personality and values. In these factions, you have to devote the rest of your life to or you become the faction-less which is similar to the home-less for our world. However, Tris Prior, a young girl from Abnegation encounters troubles when she takes her aptitude tests. Jeanine, the totalitarian ruler, claims that "we must restore the peace". As you watch the movie, you will see that she doesn't want anything stopping her "peace" and she will go out of her way to make her plan succeed. Tris chooses Dauntless and meets Four, one of the leaders of Dauntless. Tris has to leave her family and I envision it like college where you separate from your family and have to go on your own for your own career. Compared to Hunger Games, the back stories are much different than each other. In Hunger Games, Katniss has to fight for who she loves and kill other teens in order to survive. Although there are similarities between these two movies such as the post-apocalyptic setting and female protagonist fighting for a change, the movies are extremely different.

Divergent uses ethical and pathos appeals to captivate the audience's attention. For instance, when we meet Tris, we are instantly provided ethos when we meet her because the introduction in the movie starts with Tris telling us the story of how the 5 factions are split up which gives her credibility. We are provided pathos when we see Tris has to go through many challenges in the aptitude tests. Overall, I feel that watching Divergent was well worth my time and I would recommend watching this movie, I would watch it over again. Throughout the movie, we are provided these appeals and I would give more examples but I would give away the plot.