Insurgent DVD Release August 4th!

Hey all!

I hope you saw my post a few weeks ago about how I was a bit frustrated with all the changes between the Insurgent book and the Insurgent movie. My favorite book of the trilogy and I felt it was ripped apart and glued back together in a weird order. Not my happiest post.

Well, someone reads my blog and I was contacted by a press agency who asked me to share a clip to celebrate the release of Insurgent on DVD and after checking it out, I realized it was all legitimate. And the clip was great. It focuses on Veronica Roth talking about the changes she had to concede to while adapting the book.

You can watch the video at this link. It got me thinking about my writing. It would be hard to let go of some things to compact it into a 2-hour movie. I think it’s awesome she was so involved in the process. It’s obvious she had to give in at some points and you can tell from the clip she’s not overly excited about it. But she was professional and stuck to her message and I have to commend her for that.

Until next time, write on.

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Insurgent Movie- Please just make one more.

Poster image via IMDb.com

I will be honest here and say I avoided seeing this movie. I know it came out three months ago, but I was disappointed with the previews and knew from those how far from the book the screenwriters had deviated. So I didn’t want to see it. But then last week I wanted to see a movie and this was the only thing that looked remotely interesting and it was only $3 at the second-run theater. So I saw it. And while I was disappointed with how much changed, I still enjoyed it. But yet again, the ending. I’ll get to it.

Things I Thought Were Awesome

Set design. Yes, the sweeping shots of post-apocalyptic Chicago were awesome, but the amount of detail the set designers paid to Amity and the Factionless was incredible. Especially the Factionless and the inside of Evelyn’s apartment. It gave them the appearance of being organized which helped the moviegoer reorganize his thoughts about the group.

Jerk Factionless guy. He gave the group a voice without it seeming disjointed and I thought he was a really good add. Plus the train fight scene was pretty intense.

Changes That Didn’t Really Bother Me

The box. The previews made me want to hate whatever was in the box, but in the end, I think it was a good way to simplify the plot and give a good reason for Jeanine.

Downplaying Marcus. In the book, Marcus was right out annoying and any issue he had with Four was well downplayed. I thought Four had enough to deal with when his mother showed up and he didn’t need his pestering father around as well.

Tris’s fear of guns. In the book, she was so squeamish around guns because of what she’d done to Will. It was almost annoying. I understood her reaction, but I felt the nightmares she had in the movie were a better manifestation and were more in line with her character because she should still do anything necessary to survive.

 

Things That Were Taken Out and I’m Still Wondering Why

Tris’s execution. In the book, it was very deliberate and very public. Her death was Jeanine’s way of showing she had won. Tris’s death in the movie was very small and private and Jeanine didn’t seem to think too much of it at all. It didn’t have the right feel to it.

Knowing Tris was second generation. I loved that we never found out how Jeanine knew this. It made me like Jeanine. But in the movie, we don’t know what this means and we don’t hear it at all. What gives?

The amount of Divergent in Factionless. It makes sense that so many of the Factionless are Divergent. They don’t fit in at any one place, so they’re Factionless. It made them stronger to me, but this small fact seems to have been left out.

Things That Changed Too Much

The Ending. I walked out mad because of this. Instead of eight or so people knowing what’s going on and leaving the wall, we’ve got five thousand on our hands. What are the experiment leaders going to do with this amount of people in the next movie? How can the plot even be remotely similar? I’m really confused at the enormity of this change and what the writers were thinking. It was way too much.

Casting for Evelyn. She looked 32 and Four looks 27. There’s too much of an age discrepancy here and it was weird.

Reader, I’m dying to know what you think. What did you think of the Insurgent movie? Did it change the book too much for you to enjoy? Do you think Allegiant will be made into two films? Was there anything else you would add to my lists?

Until next time, write on.

Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth (5/5). The trilogy ramps up!

I know I said I read Divergent quickly, but I flew through Insurgent. I think I read 95% of the book in three sittings, the last one being Saturday morning where I didn’t get out of bed for three hours because I wanted to finish it. I considered giving this 4 out of 5 stars as well, but I liked it a lot more than the first book, so it gets a full 5 stars. By the way, there will be massive spoilers in the summary. You have been warned.

Cover Image courtesy of Goodreads.com

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Starting off exactly where the first book ended, Tris and Tobias must find a way to defeat the Erudite and the rebel-Dauntless who have murdered half of the Abnegation. They try to find support in Amity to no avail and hide themselves temporarily among the factionless before seeking refuge among the Candor. When they learn they are a bargaining chip the Candor leader will use to save his own pepole, the Dauntless return to their home. Jeanine has had the rebel-Dauntless raid the Candor headquarters before they can escape, shooting a simulation chip into most Candor and some Dauntless. Tris and Tobias fear that with this power, Jeanine will attack again and the Dauntless numbers are not high enough to fight back. The Dauntless align themselves with the factionless in an attempt to eradicate the Erudite and their knowledge.

Meanwhile, Tobias’s father knows that there is some secret information that Tris’s father died to protect. Jeanine is keeping it from the rest of the population because it will change the way society functions so entirely that nothing will never return to the way it was. Without telling Tobias, Tris finds a way to avoid the Dauntless invasion, instead sneaking in with a team of four and trying to uncover the information. While Tris fails, Tobias find the information and is able to broadcast it to the entire population. It would seem that everyone is living in a giant experiment that hopes to find those with the ability to problem solve from different points of view: the Divergent.

I am much more enthusiastic about this series after reading Insurgent. The summary I gave leaves out a bunch of things for the sake of simplicity and still probably doesn’t make much sense. I’m too busy thinking about reading Allegiant to care. The ending reminded me of a book I read way back in middle school, Running out of Time, where the main character discovers she’s living in a time capsule and that outside of her town, it’s not the 1700s but the 1990s. I’m so excited to see where Roth goes with the final book and I’m anticipating finding out what happens beyond the walls.

Insurgent is about power: who has power, who deserves it, who we should trust with power, and what to do once you have it. Evelyn, Tobias’s mother and leader of the factionless, gains power and tries to usurp the factions and impose a faction-less system. Jeanine obviously has power and she keeps it through careful guard of information and limited access to full details. Tris is nominated to be a Dauntless leader but turns it down, knowing that there are others who will use the power better than herself. The question of whom to trust is hard to answer. Johnanna, the leader of Amity, seems to be one of the most trustworthy to me. She defies her own faction in order to stop the fighting, realize that what’s happening is bigger than her and Amity. Even in the end, the most powerful thing is information and it’s only through freedom of information that power can be restored.

Jeanine withholding information is a good reference to censorship and what it can mean for a population. In Insurgent, the population doesn’t know their origins and when Jeanine finds out and knows it will hurt her, she keeps the information hidden. This reminds me of the Freedom of Information Act and how scared politicians seemed that the information revealed would damage them personally. Government censorship is a hot topic in many countries today, North Korea being a prime example. Censorship can oppress a population into submission.

Comparison to The Hunger Games is obvious. An oppressive government that wants to hold off a revolt through withholding information, etc. The change that I like in the Divergent series is that the oppression really comes from within. Whatever exists outside the fence has set up the world that Tris lives in, but Jeanine is keeping them there. I really like this twist and it feeds on fear of the unknown.

Returning to the theory that dystopias are popular now because of our dissatisfaction with the current government and economy, I think that censorship is a great topic for Roth to cover in her books. I’ve heard before that those outside the US think we’re ignorant of world issues. I wonder if Roth is commenting on this and how the information we receive is filtered. On the news, I’m more likely to see a piece about local high school sports than the Ukraine. That’s a form of censorship.

This is probably the least coherent book review I’ve written and I think it’s because of what a whirlwind this book was to me!

Writer’s Takeaway: Talk about action! I almost think there was too much action in this book. In each of the short chapters, there was a massive amount of action packed into the terse prose. The plot kept moving so quickly that I didn’t have time to absorb what was happening some times.

I also thought there were a lot of characters and it was hard for me to keep them straight. I was glad that Roth didn’t re-introduce every character at the beginning of the second book, but even characters I thought had clear relationships in my mind got confused by half way in. I couldn’t remember everyone’s girlfriend, parents’ names, original faction, and loyalties; it was too much.

Despite these complaints, I still think this was an excellent example of a YA book with action and meaning. I think it was a great sequel. A full 5 out of 5 stars.

Until next time, write on.

Related Posts:
Review- Insurgent (Divergent Series. Book #2) by Veronica Roth | Book Gossips
Insurgent by Veronica Roth | Review | The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say shhh!
Insurgent by Veronica Roth | Nerdy Book Club
Lottie Reviews: Insurgent by Veronica Roth | Lottie Reads
Insurgent by Veronica Roth Review 3/5 | Blogs-of-a-Bookaholic

WWW Wednesday, 5-Mar-2014

I’m trying to become a regular in the WWW Wednesday meme hosted by MizB on Should Be Reading. Here’s my second in a row (yay for consistency)!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading: I’m down to four books, which is good for me. In print I’m reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth. I’m tearing through the series, it’s a bit frightening actually. I’m also still pecking away at Harry Potter y la Orden del Fenix by J.K. Rowling. I’m into this one for the long haul. I did manage to get some read before my husband brought Allegiant home for me. He took it from his classroom library. I’m not really stealing from 7th graders, it just looks like that. On my phone I’m getting close to finishing We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. This book is crazy good and I hope I can finish it up soon. I’d say this week but, you know, Allegiant… And on Audio, it’s The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach and I’m liking it a lot more. It’s my drive-home-book now, too.

Recently finished: I finished two books on Saturday, Insurgent by Veronica Roth and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Insurgent review will be up tomorrow, Outlander some time next week.

Reading Next: I’m pushing myself to finish Harry Potter, and I still hope to read Canada by Richard Ford next. We’ll see how long it takes.

That’s it from me. What are your three Ws? Leave a comment and let me know and also check out the original post on MizB’s blog!

Until next time, write on.

WWW Wednesday, 26-Feb-2014

I’ve decided to start participating in a weekly post on Wednesdays, WWW Wednesdays hosted by MizB on Should be Reading.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading: I’m a girl who can’t read only one book at a time, so get ready for a list. In print, I have two books, Insurgent by Veronica Roth which I started last night and Harry Potter y la Orden del Fénix by J.K. Rowling which I’ve been working on for over a year. I was a Spanish major in college so I like to practice reading in Spanish when I can. It’s good to read something I’m already familiar with in English so I learn new words. It’s been slow going because I always prioritize other books. On my phone, I’m reading We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver which I’m in love with. His narrator is such a wonderfully developed woman and I adore reading about her. I’m listening to a book on my phone as well, which is The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. This is for my book club and comes highly recommended by my friend Katherine. Finally, the audiobook in my car is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I’m almost done with the behemoth and I’ll be glad when it’s over, but I’m too far in to give up!

Recently finished: Just Kids by Patti Smith. Review will be up tomorrow!

Reading Next: I’ve wanted to read Canada by Richard Ford for a long time now. I finally bought a copy and should have the time to delve into it in the next month or so. I’m excited!

That’s it from me. What are your three Ws? Leave a comment and let me know and also check out the original post on MizB’s blog!

Until next time, write on.