Ok so let's be honest. I was not going to see this movie. The campaign for it really didn't blow me away. I thought.. eh... another teen movie. Then I had some friends come to town for spring break and their teen daughter wanted to go and see it. So we headed off to the IMAX theater to check it out.. and I am sooo glad that I did!!
I really didn't think it was bad. The movie follows the book quite well. I have noticed though that the movie hasn't brought in much money this weekend. I read on Forbes that "domestic gross of Beautiful Creatures ($19.4m), The Host ($26.6m), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones ($31.1m), and Vampire Academy ($7.7m)." Divergent made 22.8 million so compared to these other films it did OK. I think one of the major problems with this becoming a successful movie is the market is saturated right now with these teen movies. We have Hunger Games still in the theaters and Maze Runner coming out this fall. I think those that have read the books will enjoy this film, those who haven't I'm not so sure. We have characters living in a dystopian world.. where these teens must survive.
I see that right now on Rotten Tomatoes this movie as a score of 41%!! Wow! But of course the critics never feel the same as the audience which has given the film 80%! I never try to pay attention to what critics think only the fans/audience. I hope that by word of mouth this film gets more of an audience so that there is more of a chance of a second movie being made.
The film is left up in the air at the end for a second movie.. but I think it also ended well if this does turn out to be the last movie in the series. I do think this movie is worth going to the theater. Skip the IMAX prices... we only went to IMAX to see it since we had some friends from out of town here who had never been to one of those theaters before. I give this movie a B.I really didn't think it was bad. The movie follows the book quite well. I have noticed though that the movie hasn't brought in much money this weekend. I read on Forbes that "domestic gross of Beautiful Creatures ($19.4m), The Host ($26.6m), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones ($31.1m), and Vampire Academy ($7.7m)." Divergent made 22.8 million so compared to these other films it did OK. I think one of the major problems with this becoming a successful movie is the market is saturated right now with these teen movies. We have Hunger Games still in the theaters and Maze Runner coming out this fall. I think those that have read the books will enjoy this film, those who haven't I'm not so sure. We have characters living in a dystopian world.. where these teens must survive.
I see that right now on Rotten Tomatoes this movie as a score of 41%!! Wow! But of course the critics never feel the same as the audience which has given the film 80%! I never try to pay attention to what critics think only the fans/audience. I hope that by word of mouth this film gets more of an audience so that there is more of a chance of a second movie being made.
Check out my book reviews:
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
I am so excited to go tonight!
ReplyDeleteMissie @ A Flurry of Ponderings
It turned out to be really good!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the movie. I want to see this but I will put my name on the reserve list at the library as soon as I can.
ReplyDeleteI liked this book much better than the next two so I'm glad to hear the movie stays pretty close to the book. Great review.
Yeah... I think that it is a good movie but might be just a rental. I don't think it's one people should run out to see, of course if people don't run out to see it then a movie 2 probably won't be made. I get a lot of movies from the library!
ReplyDeleteI am glad it was enjoyable! I was wondering how closely it would follow the book because I read a review where the reviewer didn't seem to understand basic things like that sorting test but maybe the reviewer didn't really pay attention. But I think I'll wait to see this as a rental though because I became so unexcited by the story after that last book.
ReplyDeleteHonestly it was actually decent. I really didn't want to see it either. Then I went and I was like... OK this is actually good. I would at least see it on a matinne if you are excited about it at all.
ReplyDeleteHumm... the sorting test made perfect sense to me. Even though it was a little rushed (though that's because it's a movie not the book). I guess if you don't get the whole tests in the dreams for the sorting test, but I thought they explained it well. The group I went with only two of us had read the book and the other 3 hadn't and none of them said they were confused. Everyone sees movies different though.
ReplyDeleteSeeing it today! And actually, Divergent made 56$ million, not 22$mill which is way less than the first Hunger Games, but is more than all those other films and the first Twilight film. The first Twilight film made 69$mill in the US & CA combined, but they never revealed how much it made solely in the US its opening weekend, which is a bit suspicious.. Divergent still has the potential to do pretty darn well. Hopefully it will too, cus Insurgent is clearly the best book in the trilogy...
ReplyDeleteOK that total must be after Saturday. I did the post Saturday night and that's how much they made at the time. I am very happy to read that. I want there to be a second film. Though I often wonder if the third film's ending will change from the book. We will see. I look forward to seeing what you think about it.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was really fun, too! (You know that, hah, since I'm here following your link from posting on our review.) I'm glad you ignored the critics and went to see it anyway--like you said, their opinions don't always mean much. Hopefully the second film is just as good. :)
ReplyDeleteWendy @ The Midnight Garden
I do try to not read the critics reviews but only the audience reviews. Usually the audience is looking for a good time while critics are looking for acting and script and what not. There are several movies on rotten tomatoes where the critics pan the movie and the audience loves it.
ReplyDeleteI kind of didn't want to like it because of the hype - but there are a lot of things that I really did. I thought it was a good adaptation and I thought Theo James was the perfect Four.
ReplyDeleteI thought Theo James as Four was great too!! He is cute and that adds to it. He played Four really perfectly. I wasn't too sure about the tattoos on his back though.. I pictured them a little differently.
ReplyDelete