Film Preview: Divergent (2014)

Poster

Additional posters can be found below.

Trailer Link

Release Date:

March 21, 2014

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Beatrice Prior, a teenager with a special mind, finds her life threatened when an authoritarian leader seeks to exterminate her kind in her effort to seize control of their divided society.”

Poster: B- / B (7) / B+ / C

Review: The primary poster design is a bit too perfect, eliminating the gritty elements of the film. Prettying up your romantic leads might help bring in a young adult audience, but it betrays the film’s essence.

The seven character designs are very simple and almost too dark. Yet, the differing poses combined with the distinctive tattoos make for a unique style choice that ultimately benefits the advertisement.

(#9 & #10) The ninth design is probably the most creative, opting for a hand-drawn style that’s very fitting to the themes and story elements early in the book. This should help make it appealing to fans of the book, but won’t mean much to those who haven’t read it. The tenth poster is for a foreign territory, but attempts to create a streamlined and inventive style. It almost works, but tries too hard to invoke elements of the film while ignoring its darker elements.

Trailer: (B-) / B- / C+

Review: (NOTE: I believe this to be the “First Look” specified on the Apple website, but it had previously been labeled as a trailer, so I’m not 100% certain) Leave it to Summit Entertainment to be the one company most likely to put forth a potential claimant to the Tween Entertainment crown left vacant by Twilight. This has all the elements to set it apart from other recent misfires and showcases a much more appealing setting, though one which feels entirely too similar to the others.

(#2) As I said in my previous review, this trailer makes the film look like the natural heir to the Twilight tween empire. The film looks at once both gritty and sexy, the combination of which should enable the film to turn a tidy profit. The trailer doesn’t quite have the perfect hooks, but they are enticing enough to appeal to the necessary demographic while potentially intriguing a few of the uninitiated.

(#3) It’s easy to recognize elements from the book, but it’s not so easy piecing them all together. The film is made out to be something akin to The Hunger Games without creating the knowing depth those films’ trailers have so far provided.