Cassandra Truelson
The Paw Print
Caution! Contains Spoilers
Every book turned move adaptation comes with complications and difficulties. But unlike most films, Insurgent turned out to be a success even with the changes that were made. Insurgent raised over one hundred million in the box offices alone when it hit theaters on March twentieth of this year, which is considerably lower than the first movie, Divergent had made the previous year. Money aside, Insurgent successfully continues the Divergent story with a unique kick.
Robert Schwentke and the writers for Insurgent brought the film to life with clever word play and insightful camera work. The one thing that makes this movie successful is that fact that Veronica Roth, the creator of the book series, worked closely with the screen writers and did have some say and input with the film. Because of this, the writers were able to understand exactly what Roth wanted to communicate to the viewers and with this, what parts were able to be left out, while keeping the story intact. Without Roth’s input, it would be fair to say that the story line could have become mixed up in the book to screen process and would untimely leave fans with the feeling of frustration.
As fans of the book know, the box that Jeanine is desperately chasing after to open with the use of the Divergent population was not present in the second book of the series. This was the creation of the crew and Roth’s way of drawing this particular conflict of the story together, while keeping the movie length at the right amount. The creation of the said “box” then turned out to be a very clever and successful way to cover the conflict at hand. Fans know that at the end of the first book, Tris gets ahold of a hard drive that contains the information about life outside the city. Fans who have read the books also know that Tris and Peter’s fight in the beginning of Insurgent was because Tris had found Peter in her room trying to seal the said hard drive.
Every film has its faults when looked at closely, and no film can be exactly like the book it is based off of. This is where that saying “the books are better than the movies” comes into play. Quite a few movies miss the meanings and messages that make the story at hand unique and special, but Insurgent is not one of these movies. Insurgent kept close to the story line and got the meanings and messages across in a way that was entertaining and creative. As a fan of the series, one should appreciate the hard work of writing and film making and be able to notice the pressures that those who work in the business face while working on such projects. But at the same time learn to appreciate the differences between the book and movie and be able to look at each as two different pieces of work.
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