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Divergent: Official Movie Review

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So today, diagnosis I’m at the Divergent World Premiere in Los Angeles. Well, dosage I’m not there right now. I’m writing this so it publishes while I’m there. I won’t be able to blog while I’m there. You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram or Tumblr in order to keep up with all the Divergent awesomeness. Here is my review of the movie though!

Divergent

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Official U.S. Release Date: March 21st, 2014

Rated:

Rated PG-13 for intense violence and action, thematic elements and some sensuality

Directed By:

Neil Burger

Cast:

Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Zoe Kravitz, Ashley Judd, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort.

Find the rest on IMDB here.

IMDB Movie Synopsis:

In a world divided by factions based on virtues, Tris learns she’s Divergent and won’t fit in. When she discovers a plot to destroy Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents dangerous before it’s too late.

My Review:

I am literally blown away at how well they did with this movie. While it wasn’t absolutely perfect, I thought they did a wonderful job with it.

^^That was exactly how I started off my Vampire Academy review and I thought it was quite fitting for the review I’m about to do for Divergent. While watching the movie, I was unsure at times if things were being changed or if I just totally needed to re-read the book. I waited until I did a re-read before I did this review because I wanted to make sure that I did this fairly. Now that I’ve read the book again, I can tell you that I love the movie even more than the first time I saw it and I’m so glad that I saw it and I’m literally going to die until I see it again.

I thought they did a wonderful job taking the book and putting it on the big screen. There were a TON of direct quotes from the book (which is always my favorite) and it flowed nicely. There were small things that they cut but I honestly felt like everything was done f or a reason and it really did such great justice to the book. It really captured what it was about, all that fear and uncertainty and the many realizations that Tris comes through while making her journey from Abnegation to Dauntless. I really thought they captured each faction really well too. We really only see Dauntless and Abnegation and a bit of Erudite but so much of it was exactly like I had pictured. I really felt like the world I had gotten to know so well in the books had come to life on screen.

Which brings me to the characters. When all these characters were being cast, there was really only one casting (Kate Winslet as Jeanine Matthews) that really made me feel comfortable. Of course, I had to see them as the actual characters but I wasn’t sold completely. Well, after seeing the movie, I can’t imagine anyone else playing any of these characters. They all really seemed to understand the person they were playing and portrayed them so well. I was surprised at really seeing Tris and Four and Peter and Caleb and Christina and the rest. I felt that the characters really jumped from the book to the screen. The actors weren’t just portraying characters, they WERE the characters.

I really had fun while watching this movie. The music mixed with the action was absolutely fabulous and I found myself quoting along because there were so many direct quotes from the book. I loved it and I honestly can’t wait to see it again. I saw it about two weeks ago and its already been way too long. I hope that I’ll be able to see it again today at the premiere. Cross my fingers.

I have a lot of hope for this movie. What I really loved about it was that it really highlighted the emotional journeys of these characters but it definitely made sure to capture all the amazing action that is there. I think that’s what can make this a movie that is enjoyable no matter what gender or age. It really has something for everyone, or so I think. I hope that people can get past its “another tween movie” or “another Hunger Games” and really give it a chance because I honestly think it’ll do really well. Its a great book and a great movie and I really hope I can see it again soon!

Rating:

4 out of 5 Stars

Paper Towns Book Review

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Paper Towns by John Green

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You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, ask Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

My Review:

When I first started reading John Green a few years ago, this was one of the first ones I had picked up. The first one I had read was An Abundance of Katherines, which still remains my favorite of his. Back then, Paper Towns didn’t impress me as much as his other works so I decided to give it another try.

I still found it kind of lacking. For me, in this particular book, it was really hard to get John Green out of my head. It didn’t feel like it was Quentin’s voice. It always felt like John’s voice and it was kind of frustrating. I watch a lot of Nerdfighters and Vlog Brothers and just John Green videos on YouTube, and I felt like it was John the whole time so it was hard to get into Quentin as a character. I know that authors put themselves into characters-I definitely do that-but it was highly distracting in this book.

I also just didn’t think it was that great of a story. I was kind of like Q’s friends, and sort of frustrated at his obsession with Margo. She seemed sort of…I don’t know. I just didn’t like her. She was so mysterious and she left these clues and everyone was fascinated by the idea of her but not actually her, you know? It was kind of “been there, done that.” I feel mean right now haha because I don’t tend to give less than positive reviews but I just wasn’t that impressed with this book. I felt like Margo was a one-dimensional character and I really wanted her to surprise me. The direction in which her story ended up just didn’t surprise me and I like a good book to surprise me. His other books have done that before, and this one just felt predictable from the beginning.

That being said, there is a lot of good about this book because John Green is a really great writer and he has a way of capturing teen voice in a way that not many authors can do (Andrew Smith!!!!!) and he definitely does that in Paper Towns as well. It always seems to me that John Green never really left his teen years behind, but in a good way. He remembers what its like and it comes across in the page. He gets the emotions and the hormones and the humor and all of it. Its great. And there were parts of the book that I really liked, like the after-prom party and the road trip and that sort of thing. There were parts that had me laughing like crazy. There were almost, like, short stories within the bigger story that I enjoyed more than the story as a whole. Not one of John Green’s strongest, not in my opinion.

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 Stars

Book of the Week: Rebel by Amy Tintera

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Rebel by Amy Tintera 

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GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy given to me in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my review in the slightest, medical and everything said here is my honest opinion. Thank you Edelweiss and Harper Teen for the ARC. 

Genre:

Young Adult, stomach Science Fiction, find Dystopian

Part of a Series?:

The finale of the Reboot Duology

Please keep in mind that while there will be NO spoilers for Rebel, there WILL be Reboot spoilers. To read the review for Reboot, please click this link. 

You May Like if You Liked:

Divergent by Veronica Roth, Legend by Marie Lu, Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Age Recommendation:

13+

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

The sequel to the action-packed Reboot is a can’t-miss thrill ride, perfect for fans of James Patterson, Veronica Roth, and Marie Lu.

After coming back from death as Reboots and being trained by HARC as soldiers, Wren and Callum have finally escaped north, where they hope to find a life of freedom. But when they arrive at the Reboot Reservation, it isn’t what they expected. Under the rule of a bloodthirsty leader, Micah, the Reboots are about to wage an all-out war on the humans. Although Wren’s instincts are telling her to set off into the wilderness on their own and leave the battle far behind, Callum is unwilling to let his human family be murdered. When Micah commits the ultimate betrayal, the choice is made for them. But Micah has also made a fatal mistake . . . he’s underestimated Wren and Callum.

The explosive finale to the Reboot duology is full of riveting action and steamy love scenes as Wren and Callum become rebels against their own kind.

My Review: 

I was so thrilled when I was able to download this from Edelweiss this week. I just read Reboot this weekend, and I was already dying to read Rebel. I went to check on Edelweiss just to see if they had it and I could possibly get my hands on it, and it was an automatic approval download. I pretty much squealed with excitement.

I am really impressed with this series, for many reasons but I’m hugely impressed with the fact that its a duology. There aren’t a lot of authors writing a two-part series-most do trilogies-and I really applaud Amy for doing so. I’m writing a duo, so it makes me feel really good to see a sci-fi/dystopian duo, and a great one at that, because it gives me the confidence boost to do it myself. Plus I think its incredible for an author to make a world like this, and create a complex story like this and start and finish it in two books. It says a lot about their story telling abilities and I think Amy is a fantastic story teller.

When I finished Reboot, I was definitely wanting to read Rebel but I didn’t feel that automatic pull. There wasn’t a HUGE cliffhanger that made me DIE for the book. What really made me want to read the next book was the characters. I really felt attached to Wren and Callum and I wanted to read more about them, and what would happen to them in the future. So while the story itself wasn’t bringing me back, the characters were. All of Amy’s characters are very rich and genuine. Even though Ever is only in the first book, and only part of it, she is a character that really stays with you and I think that definitely continues in Rebel.

The story, however, does grab you very quickly. Callum and Wren land themselves in this Reboot reservation and they think its an escape, that it’ll be better than being under the crushing boot of the HARC, but it doesn’t quite work that way. We meet Micah very early in this book and I knew right away that there was something very wrong about him, and I think our characters knew it too. This is obviously a problem, and its what keeps you stuck in that book, turning the pages, wanting to know what is going to happen next. I needed to know what Micah was up to, what he was capable of and what Wren and Callum and the other Austin Reboots were going to do about it, if anything at all. Micah is a compelling villain and a believable one, because sometimes you can’t figure out whether he has a point or not. He leaves you with some hefty logic but he seems so inherently evil. Its so confusing and addicting.

The Last Word

Basically, here is what you need to know: Amy takes the story that she created in the first book and blows it up in the second book…in the best way possible. She wraps up the first one like it could be the end, but then takes the story further in Rebel and opens up the world and the possibilities. She creates a fantastic, creepy, and compelling villain in Micah and she made me fall in love with Wren, and with Callum even more. The character development, the story development, the love story, the action, all of it equals into a really amazing book. This is one that is a MUST pick up when it comes out in early May. Don’t miss out on this, and if you’ve read this and haven’t read Reboot yet, I’m sorry for the spoilers but get off that butt and go buy it. You definitely won’t regret it.

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