Let's Talk: Insurgent - Book Vs. Movie

Let's Talk is a segment here on The Book Bratz where we deal with topics of debate, news in the literary world, or just our thoughts in general. On Thursday we saw Insurgent (Divergent, #2) - (a day early!) and decided that we just had to talk about it. So here are our opinions on Insurgent: The Book vs. The Movie!

  

Jessica's Opinion:

I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy the movie, only because even though the first movie, Divergent, *did* follow the book, Insurgent's trailer hinted that it wasn't going to. Anybody who saw the trailer and read the book immediately noticed something that Veronica Roth never wrote about - a mysterious box that could only be opened after someone passed the simulations for all of the factions. Seeing that in the trailer immediately turned me off to the movie and I automatically was no longer interested - because one of my biggest pet peeves is when movies don't follow books.

I mean, seriously. You literally have the script sitting right in front of you, directors! All 400+ pages of material to work with. You may have to cut some things out, sure, but you don't have to rewrite the entire freaking thing. That's just creating more work for yourselves and ruining the story.

But in this case, from what Amber told me, she read in an article that the box in the movie was actually Veronica's idea. Which made me a little less uneasy. So I went to go see it and...OH MY GOD, GUYS. THIS MOVIE. I never ever like to admit that a book is better than a movie, but Insurgent as a movie definitely blew Insurgent as a book away. Without a single doubt. The only other movie adaptation of a book that I enjoyed more than the actual book was The Great Gatsby. As for Theo James, I always thought he was cute, but for some reason this movie made me love him even more.

Seriously. I even texted my boyfriend halfway through the movie informing him that we were over and I was running away to marry Theo James. And he was surprisingly okay with it (I think he may have a man-crush on Theo, too). Seriously, guys. The romance and charisma and action and drama were all so real and definitely made much more sense to me seeing it on the screen. I wasn't even bothered about the box because it tied into the story much better than the disc did in the book, and it added a whole new dimension to the story. In conclusion, I rated the novel four stars, but the movie definitely deserves a solid 5[00] stars. Definitely something that everyone should go read and then see - the comparison is pretty cool.

Amber's Opinion:

I tweeted about the movie at least five hundred times since I saw it. It was incredible. Typically I am very picky with book to movie adaptations and the littlest thing bothers me. Insurgent wasn't the case. Obviously there were differences, but in my opinion I think they made the movie much better. I saw a lot of other bloggers who are really unhappy with how the movie turned out, which I can honestly understand. I don't have the greatest memory and Insurgent is pretty much a blur to me at this point anyway. But here is what I say: Give it a shot. It wasn't horrible, both Shai and Theo play Tris and Four amazingly, and the graphics were amazing. 

When the credits began to roll I was stunned. The last scene in the movie? It wasn't how I expected it to end, it wasn't anything major. Just unexpected. I know everyone is going to be in for a surprise in the next movie. I can already feel it. (Confession: I still need to read Allegiant. I probably won't because I am not prepared for the pain) The characters were still the same though. Tris and and Four still argued about almost everything (Just not as extreme) and Tris made stupid decisions that made her seem heroic. I don't how ever recall Caleb being such a dick. I wanted to strangle him. He took "Faction over blood" to a whole new extreme. I took a liking to Peter in this movie, Miles Teller is a great actor and is exactly what I pictured Peter to be. 

Overall, I loved it. There were differences and it didn't follow the book perfectly but the directors made everything work together. Seeing Tris and Four on the big screen versus in my head is still weird. (as it is with most movies that originated from books) 

So those were our opinions on the Insurgent novel versus the Insurgent movie! What were your thoughts, and which of the two did you like better? Tell us in the comments down below!