there's someone for everyone (or: why i love divergent)
so. over the course of thirteen days, i have somehow managed to see divergent five times. in the cinema. with different companions. FIVE TIMES. which is pretty ridiculous, even for me. six months ago i'd never even heard of the franchise, and when captureinsanity told me about it, i was all, "pffft, that sounds like it's going to be just as bad as the hunger games. or twilight."
and now i have seen it five times and it is possibly - probably - one of my top three favourite love stories of all time, if not the actual top. i tell people that theo james and his sexy, smouldering self is 99% the reason for my love, but the more i see it, the more i actually love the entire movie as a whole, and the characters, and the story, and just ALL OF IT. i should preface this by saying that i haven't read the book - and probably won't, because ya fiction makes my brain shrivel up in pain (movies are different because they can be pretty and vapid and you only spend two hours thinking what the fuck am i doing with my life, whereas books... books can butcher a language in ten million different ways while still maintaining an engaging enough premise that both quitting prematurely and finishing the book are torturous in their own ways). i'm pretty sure people who have read the book feel very differently about the movie than i do. it's the same way the harry potter films will never be as good to someone who's read the books, but in this case i'm pretty sure i'd prefer the movies anyway.
/preface
i love a good love story. it doesn't matter what the genre is, or the setting, i've always loved a good love story. but my idea of a good love story has never really fit everyone else's. people talk about the notebook or when harry met sally or moulin rouge, and sure, those are okay films, kind of trashy, but in a good way, but to me, they were all just "better than average". my favourite love story before this one was the painted veil. everything about it was so gut-wrenchingly, hauntingly perfect. and it always felt real, no matter the crazy circumstances.
it's the same in divergent. the love story is one of my favourite things because it's always there, always tangible, but, like in real life, when there are bigger things at play, it lurks in the background. in fact, people have complained that it never really takes centre stage save one or two (AWESOME) moments, but that's the beauty of it. that makes every moment that does happen gorgeous. plus, it means that divergent is at its core the story of a girl who learns how to kick ass and take names without ever becoming a caricature of an actual human being (e.g. natasha romanov, although i've come to love her too for different reasons). and she doesn't play into the "anything boys can do, i can do better" bullshit, either. she just is awesome, and does what needs to be done, gender-blind. how awesome does a movie have to be to do that? to allow a character to do that?
NOT ONLY THAT, our leading lady ends up being both physically AND emotionally a rockstar. she doesn't ruin her heroic efforts with wishy-washy "OH MY GOD A BOY LIKES ME? OH MY GOD MAYBE MORE THAN ONE BOY LIKES ME? OH MY GOD NOW TWO BOYS LIKE ME? HOW DO I CHOOSE? LET ME JUST DRAG THIS LOVE TRIANGLE BULLSHIT OUT FOR AN ENTIRE TRILOGY BECAUSE EVERYONE KNOWS A LOVE TRIANGLE IS THE ONLY DEFINING THING THAT MAKES US TEENAGE GIRLS WHO WE ARE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH ASS WE KICK OTHERWISE." i hate that trope so. fucking. much. i never used to have anything against ya fiction, but then boys became THE ONLY THING girls could mope about, because every generation needs a teenaged role model to follow, and who better than girls like bella swan? (destroyed herself for a possessive stalker who set rules for her to live by.) or katniss everdeen? (who, despite taking down an entire caste system, COULD NOT MAKE UP HER MIND BETWEEN TWO BOYS BECAUSE OH MY GOD THAT IS A BIGGER DILEMMA THAN THE STRUCTURE OF MODERN SOCIETY.) or, best of all, anastasia whatsherface? (who could not wrap her mind around the fact that penis and vagina are real words and she would have probably been better served learning her own body by herself than with a psychopath.)
that said, divergent does the exact opposite, and not only lets the female characters save the day, but allows them to do it while maintaining vulnerability and tenderness. most of the time, in fact, it shows them to be ordinary women, because every woman can be kickass if she lets herself be. and fuck if i don't love the crap out of that message. even the villain: she's brilliant, and has her own code of morals, her own set beliefs, and it wasn't hard, at least for me, to see where she was coming from. (this comes from a girl who believes on her most cynical days that the world would be a better place if we stuck with less medication and more darwinism, though, so don't take my word for it.)
and all this amazingness comes on the heels of a stellar, solid cast. who also happen to be stellar, solid eye-candy. theo james is my new self-declared celebrity husband, and shailene woodley is jennifer lawrence 2.0, a hollywood starlet in the making. but the true revelation is neil burger. his directing, oh my god. for the first time in my life, i felt like--i could see my writing in his directing. i can't even make that make sense, but i understood it. his directing decisions, his editing decisions, everything just made sense to me. it flowed. it was the continuation of every movie i've ever made up in my head about a fic i wrote. it felt like coming home.
and every shot moved. i loved that. if it wasn't the actors, it was the camera. i only noticed that the third or fourth time around, and i was just so gobsmacked by it all. how much care do you have to put into your work to do that? not to mention his pitch-perfect handling of the emotional beats in the film. my biggest gripe about action films in this genre is that they are ridiculously slow. (hunger games, i'm looking at you.) NO YOU DO NOT HAVE FIVE FUCKING MINUTES FOR A MONTAGE OF SLOW-MO BEWILDERED CRYING OVER A DEATH IN A WAR. JUST LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES FOR A VILLAINOUS MONOLOGUE. SOMEONE WOULD BE DEAD. and divergent never forgot that, which was so refreshing. for the first time, i didn't want to yell, "GET THE FUCK ON WITH IT" at every death scene.
i feel like the divergent trilogy is going to fall apart in the next installment, since mr burger's not going to be helming it, but it's okay. he's done his part. he'll have to let the shai and theo's crazy perfect chemistry and the cast's stupid amazing acting skills carry the weight of the rest of the trilogy. case in point: i watched tris' mum die five times, and it still hit me in the gut every time. her, "stop! stop!" while her mum lies dying is the most beautiful line of dialogue i have ever heard in a film. ever. and when she has to pack it up and run anyway, oh my god, how people sit through that with dry eyes i will never understand. or the way tris deals with her dad dying, how she has to keep moving, even when it's impossible.
just -- there are so many things i loved about the movie, even without taking into consideration the message behind it. the family aspect was great. the surprise revelations. the ending. and, like i said, i love a good love story, and this had all the elements i dream about. trust and respect growing into mutual attraction. build-up. honesty. taking things slow. working better as a team. things like:
- the moment you realise heights are one of his biggest fears and he FACED IT JUST FOR HER
- when he trusts her with his fears (AND THE SCENE WITH MARCUS OH MY GOD MY HEART, such motherfucking effective storytelling and i loved it so much)
- the scene on the train when she finally makes her way over to him and he brushes his hand against hers
- the scene where she wakes him up (which should've been cheesy as hell but was so fucking beautiful instead, and i didn't see it coming at all because it was perfect and smart and so, so damn great)
- when at the end she says, "i got it," and he says, "i know you do," but helps her up onto the train anyway, and she doesn't throw a snit about it pretending it's all for the sake of "feminism" because fuck yeah they both know she's a badass, but there's nothing wrong with getting a little help, and they both know that too
there's so much more, the minor characters i've grown to love, the little details in every scene that i've found, the music--but i just want to curl up with this feeling for a while and bask in it. i know people have a lot to say about the pacing and the character depth and development, and i'm sure it's all true, but i'm not looking to compare the film to its book, because if they were both going to be able to achieve everything to exactly the same effect, we wouldn't need book and film versions of the same material. so i'm comparing it to other films instead, in its genre, and outside of it, and in both match-ups, it is fucking perfect. it's more than a love story; it's a love letter to love, and family, and fucking badass women, and god, yes, i would absolutely see it again.
and now i have seen it five times and it is possibly - probably - one of my top three favourite love stories of all time, if not the actual top. i tell people that theo james and his sexy, smouldering self is 99% the reason for my love, but the more i see it, the more i actually love the entire movie as a whole, and the characters, and the story, and just ALL OF IT. i should preface this by saying that i haven't read the book - and probably won't, because ya fiction makes my brain shrivel up in pain (movies are different because they can be pretty and vapid and you only spend two hours thinking what the fuck am i doing with my life, whereas books... books can butcher a language in ten million different ways while still maintaining an engaging enough premise that both quitting prematurely and finishing the book are torturous in their own ways). i'm pretty sure people who have read the book feel very differently about the movie than i do. it's the same way the harry potter films will never be as good to someone who's read the books, but in this case i'm pretty sure i'd prefer the movies anyway.
/preface
i love a good love story. it doesn't matter what the genre is, or the setting, i've always loved a good love story. but my idea of a good love story has never really fit everyone else's. people talk about the notebook or when harry met sally or moulin rouge, and sure, those are okay films, kind of trashy, but in a good way, but to me, they were all just "better than average". my favourite love story before this one was the painted veil. everything about it was so gut-wrenchingly, hauntingly perfect. and it always felt real, no matter the crazy circumstances.
it's the same in divergent. the love story is one of my favourite things because it's always there, always tangible, but, like in real life, when there are bigger things at play, it lurks in the background. in fact, people have complained that it never really takes centre stage save one or two (AWESOME) moments, but that's the beauty of it. that makes every moment that does happen gorgeous. plus, it means that divergent is at its core the story of a girl who learns how to kick ass and take names without ever becoming a caricature of an actual human being (e.g. natasha romanov, although i've come to love her too for different reasons). and she doesn't play into the "anything boys can do, i can do better" bullshit, either. she just is awesome, and does what needs to be done, gender-blind. how awesome does a movie have to be to do that? to allow a character to do that?
NOT ONLY THAT, our leading lady ends up being both physically AND emotionally a rockstar. she doesn't ruin her heroic efforts with wishy-washy "OH MY GOD A BOY LIKES ME? OH MY GOD MAYBE MORE THAN ONE BOY LIKES ME? OH MY GOD NOW TWO BOYS LIKE ME? HOW DO I CHOOSE? LET ME JUST DRAG THIS LOVE TRIANGLE BULLSHIT OUT FOR AN ENTIRE TRILOGY BECAUSE EVERYONE KNOWS A LOVE TRIANGLE IS THE ONLY DEFINING THING THAT MAKES US TEENAGE GIRLS WHO WE ARE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH ASS WE KICK OTHERWISE." i hate that trope so. fucking. much. i never used to have anything against ya fiction, but then boys became THE ONLY THING girls could mope about, because every generation needs a teenaged role model to follow, and who better than girls like bella swan? (destroyed herself for a possessive stalker who set rules for her to live by.) or katniss everdeen? (who, despite taking down an entire caste system, COULD NOT MAKE UP HER MIND BETWEEN TWO BOYS BECAUSE OH MY GOD THAT IS A BIGGER DILEMMA THAN THE STRUCTURE OF MODERN SOCIETY.) or, best of all, anastasia whatsherface? (who could not wrap her mind around the fact that penis and vagina are real words and she would have probably been better served learning her own body by herself than with a psychopath.)
that said, divergent does the exact opposite, and not only lets the female characters save the day, but allows them to do it while maintaining vulnerability and tenderness. most of the time, in fact, it shows them to be ordinary women, because every woman can be kickass if she lets herself be. and fuck if i don't love the crap out of that message. even the villain: she's brilliant, and has her own code of morals, her own set beliefs, and it wasn't hard, at least for me, to see where she was coming from. (this comes from a girl who believes on her most cynical days that the world would be a better place if we stuck with less medication and more darwinism, though, so don't take my word for it.)
and all this amazingness comes on the heels of a stellar, solid cast. who also happen to be stellar, solid eye-candy. theo james is my new self-declared celebrity husband, and shailene woodley is jennifer lawrence 2.0, a hollywood starlet in the making. but the true revelation is neil burger. his directing, oh my god. for the first time in my life, i felt like--i could see my writing in his directing. i can't even make that make sense, but i understood it. his directing decisions, his editing decisions, everything just made sense to me. it flowed. it was the continuation of every movie i've ever made up in my head about a fic i wrote. it felt like coming home.
and every shot moved. i loved that. if it wasn't the actors, it was the camera. i only noticed that the third or fourth time around, and i was just so gobsmacked by it all. how much care do you have to put into your work to do that? not to mention his pitch-perfect handling of the emotional beats in the film. my biggest gripe about action films in this genre is that they are ridiculously slow. (hunger games, i'm looking at you.) NO YOU DO NOT HAVE FIVE FUCKING MINUTES FOR A MONTAGE OF SLOW-MO BEWILDERED CRYING OVER A DEATH IN A WAR. JUST LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES FOR A VILLAINOUS MONOLOGUE. SOMEONE WOULD BE DEAD. and divergent never forgot that, which was so refreshing. for the first time, i didn't want to yell, "GET THE FUCK ON WITH IT" at every death scene.
i feel like the divergent trilogy is going to fall apart in the next installment, since mr burger's not going to be helming it, but it's okay. he's done his part. he'll have to let the shai and theo's crazy perfect chemistry and the cast's stupid amazing acting skills carry the weight of the rest of the trilogy. case in point: i watched tris' mum die five times, and it still hit me in the gut every time. her, "stop! stop!" while her mum lies dying is the most beautiful line of dialogue i have ever heard in a film. ever. and when she has to pack it up and run anyway, oh my god, how people sit through that with dry eyes i will never understand. or the way tris deals with her dad dying, how she has to keep moving, even when it's impossible.
just -- there are so many things i loved about the movie, even without taking into consideration the message behind it. the family aspect was great. the surprise revelations. the ending. and, like i said, i love a good love story, and this had all the elements i dream about. trust and respect growing into mutual attraction. build-up. honesty. taking things slow. working better as a team. things like:
- the moment you realise heights are one of his biggest fears and he FACED IT JUST FOR HER
- when he trusts her with his fears (AND THE SCENE WITH MARCUS OH MY GOD MY HEART, such motherfucking effective storytelling and i loved it so much)
- the scene on the train when she finally makes her way over to him and he brushes his hand against hers
- the scene where she wakes him up (which should've been cheesy as hell but was so fucking beautiful instead, and i didn't see it coming at all because it was perfect and smart and so, so damn great)
- when at the end she says, "i got it," and he says, "i know you do," but helps her up onto the train anyway, and she doesn't throw a snit about it pretending it's all for the sake of "feminism" because fuck yeah they both know she's a badass, but there's nothing wrong with getting a little help, and they both know that too
there's so much more, the minor characters i've grown to love, the little details in every scene that i've found, the music--but i just want to curl up with this feeling for a while and bask in it. i know people have a lot to say about the pacing and the character depth and development, and i'm sure it's all true, but i'm not looking to compare the film to its book, because if they were both going to be able to achieve everything to exactly the same effect, we wouldn't need book and film versions of the same material. so i'm comparing it to other films instead, in its genre, and outside of it, and in both match-ups, it is fucking perfect. it's more than a love story; it's a love letter to love, and family, and fucking badass women, and god, yes, i would absolutely see it again.