Thursday 3 April 2014

Divergent European Premier

 

I was lucky enough to win tickets to the Divergent Premier this last Sunday in Leicester Square, London. I admit that I wasn't as excited about this movie as I have been previously with other films I don't know why. But once I got there the atmosphere was amazing! 

Leicester Square was all done up to create a Divergent fan experience, you could go around and have a go at the capture a flag challenge (you also had a gun to shoot the targets), you could take a Divergent test to see which faction you belonged to, my sister got Erudite and I was Amity! There was also some wall climbing, the wall wasn't a normal sort of wall either, it would be constantly turning and then start tilting too. You could also get faction tattoos done and take a photo which they would do up like a movie photo. What I enjoyed the most were the people they had dressed up in character, you had people dressed up as Dauntless members, walking around intimidating you, my sister at one point was told it was rude to point and we were looked down upon for being Amity and Erudite members. The best was probably the lady who was in charge of capture the flag, when me and my sister got ready to compete against one another, we were told to take it seriously and she proper got you into the spirit of the game. 


Members of Erudite
Fans taking the faction test


Best Dauntless member!


The fan experience was definitely a great way to get you excited about the film, I had read the book so long ago, that I had forgotten so much that happens in it, so it certainly was a great way of refreshing your memory. I also knew that there would be a lot of bloggers at this event too, so I was really excited about meeting some of them, even though I can get quite nervous. I was lucky to hang out with Donna and Jess from Book Passion for Life and Misti from Bookaholics. We had fun chatting away about what we were looking forward to seeing in the film and discussing books. I also got to meet Amber from Books of Amber at the end of the film. I was hoping to meet so many other bloggers and fans, but with 400 fans invited to the show, it was hard trying to locate everyone. I was even more so gutted when I discovered on Twitter and Instagram later on that there were so many other bloggers and authors who had attended that I didn't even know about :(





But we were also given the chance to walk the red carpet! We walked into the cinema on the opposite side of the celebs, but did see Veronica Roth being interviewed when we were going in. Also just before we entered the factions were divided up into separate bowls (just like in the movie) and we had to choose which faction we wanted to go with. I of course went with Dauntless, despite my earlier test result, also I didn't want to be sitting by myself in the cinema (everyone sat according to chosen faction, which was pretty neat). The stars of the film, Veronica Roth and director Neil Burger then came into the cinema and stage to introduce the film to us, which was pretty cool, seeing as we'd missed out on seeing them on the red carpet.



Similar choosing bowls they had for us to pick our faction tags.
Source

Veronica Roth on the red carpet
Director Neil Burger, Ben Lloyd Hughes, Kate Winslet, Shailene
Woodley, Theo James and Veronica Roth



And let me just say Divergent was a pretty awesome film, it really did remind me of why I ended up loving the book when I first read it. Although I was a little wary on the casting when it was first announced, the actors actually lived up to the characters that Veronica Roth created. For me Shailene Woodley actually did an amazing job of playing Tris, she was fierce when she needed to be and was exactly like I imagined Tris's character to be like. Theo James actually convinced me too in this film, I wasn't sure that he would live up to the image of Four that I had in my head, but he did a pretty amazing job. He definitely convinced my sister too who actually hasn't read the book, but thoroughly loved the film. The scenes between Tris and Four were also done brilliantly, there was a nice slow build up to their relationship. I liked how much they incorporated from the book; the capturing the flag scene, the throwing the knives scene, jumping off trains, and thrill seeking with other Dauntless members and small things like how Tris finds out she needs to keep her Divergence in check. Also some of the scenes really were made to seem so realistic, such as when the Dauntless initiates had to fight one another, it really was brutal at times when they were hitting one another, at times, I wanted to look away, as I hated characters taking a beating. However what surprised me the most, was that I sort of developed a new favourite character, and that was Jai Courtney who played Eric. I hated Eric in the book, but seriously this guy was just amazing, he was ruthless when he needed to be and just one of those villains you love to hate. 


Eric. Source
Jai Courtney who plays Eric. Source.


My only nitpick was that I totally missed Uriah, I loved him in the book, also we did get to see Peter quite a bit, but a lot of the taunting by him, Molly and Drew was missed out upon (actually I don't even think that Drew was in it), but there is a lot from the book to fit in, so I can understand that they couldn't include everything! I definitely recommend fans in the UK to book their tickets for this film, it will be released tomorrow and is definitely worth the wait. It has also encouraged me to go back to read Allegiant and my sister who hardly ever reads to pick up Insurgent! 





19 comments:

maya said...

Sounds like you had an amazing time - jealous! The wall-climbing and capture the flag game sounds so cool and it's good to know that the film was good too. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

So cool!! Sounds like a lot of fun! I haven't read this series, but I definitely want to see the movie.

Keertana said...

It's been so long since I read Divergent that I've lost a lot of my excitement to watch this, though I will because I adore Theo James and Shailene is such a fabulous actress. You're so lucky to have gone to the premier, though, Jasprit! It seems like so much fun and they really did make such a big effort to re-create the atmosphere of this world. Thanks for sharing these lovely pictures with us, dear, I saw the images on Instagram too, so great post!(:

Mel@Thedailyprophecy said...

No Uriah!? Oh, that's sad :( The whole event sounds like a wonderful experience! :D

Jenny said...

HOW AWESOME JASPRIT!!!!!! I'm so jealous and am totally living vicariously through this post:) What a cool event, I love that it was so interactive prior to the screening. And I absolutely adored hating Eric in the movie as well. I thought he was brilliant and I couldn't wait for him to get his comeuppance. Thanks so much for sharing!!!

Melissa (i swim for oceans) said...

JASPRIT! This is SO cool! I think that going to a premiere like this would probably be the highlight of my bookish experience - even though the books are obviously still better! I think it's great that they tried to get everyone into the whole Divergent experience though. Wonderful! SO glad you were able to attend! :)

Sam (Realm of Fiction) said...

I'm glad you had a great time, Jasprit! I love the sound of the fan experience, and it's great to hear that you enjoyed the movie. I loved Divergent when I first read it, and although I haven't had much enthusiasm for the film adaptation, it does look like a lot of people have been satisfied with the character portrayals so far. I guess I will see it eventually! :)

Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings said...

Wow~ It looks you had a blast! I am going to see it this weekend with some of the bloggers in my area and I am looking forward to it. It won't be the big affair that you got to go to, but still it should be fun. Glad the movie was a win!

Mary @ BookSwarm said...

OMG. This is AWESOME! I love that they had so much fan participation -- that's really a way to get people involved and even more excited about a movie (and book!). Haven't seen the movie yet but I didn't know Uriah wasn't in it. Aw. I liked him!

Unknown said...

Ack! So jealous. jealous. jealous. I love Shailene & Theo! Their chemistry is just uhhhh off the charts amazing. I've seen this movie twice. I kinda want to see it again.

Also, this is what a 40-year-old fan girl sounds like. Heh.

Siiri said...

would actually beg you to be in the amity faction since you know.. you're basically one of the frendliest person I know :) This experience souds so freakin awesome! Very jealous, but so very glad for you:) You still got to see Amber though :D so it's not a huge disappointment in my eyes :D haha. but of course, the more the merrier. GAHHHHHHH!!!! YOU SAW FAMOUS PEOPLE. I'm still sad you didn't get to see Fitz. I mean.. YOU LOVE HIM. So that sucks, but the rest? *dies from hyperventilatig* I didn't really find anything wrong with the actors (I saw the movie) though.. I do think that Eric was kind of .. too hot O.o haha. I thought that Shailene would bother me since I'm not a fan of her at all (I blame The Secret Life of the American Teenager which I watched for.. I have no idea why. It was the worst show ever o___o). Yep, I missed Uriah too, but I love love love Miles Teller and was nudging my friend the entire time when he was in a scene so GO PETER HAHA :D However, even though I thought this wasn't a complete fail and even though I enjoyed the movie, I found it to be.. okayish. By the end I had made so many snarky comments (I bantered with my friend who was seeing it for the second time, she really enjoyed the first time she watched Divergent) that I think it somewhat sucked the fun out of the movie. Idk. I didn't dislike it in any way, I just found it.. to be ordinary and my only real yay for now is that I finally have the motivation to read the two paperbacks waiting on my shelf in order to be done with the series :) Ha. I have mixed emotions as you can see. I'm glad you enjoyed though:)

Montana @ The Book Belles said...

This event sounds like it was a lot of fun! It's so cool that you were able to pick your factions. I loved the movie, and I'm going to see it again tomorrow :p I thought Theo James did such a great job as Four and I agree with you about really enjoying the scenes between Tris and Four, too :)

Carina Olsen said...

AHH! Dies. I am so jealous. It looks and sounds like you had an amazing time :D Sigh. I cannot wait to watch Divergent on April 11th. <3 Wishing I could have gone to this premiere as well. But agh. Alta in Norway is way too far away sometimes :p Anyway. Thank you so much for sharing. <3 :)

Jess said...

I wasn't really excited for this film either (mainly because I was disappointed with Allegiant) but I really loved it and thought it was a really good adaptation! The fan experience was so good and the actors were brilliant! I was so gutted not to meet more bloggers too but that was largely down to me having to go off and sort out my tickets early. I'm glad you had such an amazing time :)

The Bookish Manicurist said...

They really went all our for this premiere, how cool! I don't think anything like this is happening here, but I will be going to see it on Friday!

Anonymous said...

OMG that sounds SO MUCH FUN! Ugh, I wish I could've went but there's no way because I live in California lol and I have school. I did see it though last week and like you, I was surprised I liked it since I was a bit worried about the casting too. But omg that is so cool that you got to take a faction test and do all those awesome stuff like the rock climbing. That's also awesome how there were some people who walked around like dauntless haha!

Sara @ Forever 17 Books said...

OMG what an awesome event!! I wish I could go to something like that someday. I totally agree with your thoughts on Shailene too. She pulled it off and did amazing. :)

Wendy Darling said...

Wow, what a fun experience you had, Jasprit! It sounds like this was a huge event. I've worked many a film premiere and walked down many red carpets myself, but you don't often see many that cater to the audience and contest winners the way that this one did. I'm glad you had such a good time, and I'm glad you liked the movie! I really enjoyed it, too.

Wendy @ The Midnight Garden

WaterSinger said...

That Erudite picture...the black-haired 'girl' with the red tips in it is me! Can't believe it lol!

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