I saw this in theater with the wife. It was actually a decent film. One of the better sci-fi films I've seen in some time. (Even if it lacks a gross abundance of Michael Bay explosions, or JJ Abrams lens flare.) The characters, and their actions, were reasonably believable given the situation they were facing.

Apparently, in the book the lady lead is 15 or 16 when she meets mister lead, who is 17 or 18, so there's only a couple years between them. There looks to be a much greater difference in age in the film. My wife said that the books do a really good job explaining everything. She read the trilogy shortly after we saw the movie.

I liked the Hunger Games (first movie) enough that I decided to read the books. OK, but the third one went off the rails a bit and overall I felt like it would be better to try to get the YA audience to read Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, or 1984, all of which still hold up pretty well.

I haven't watched Divergent yet. Would you (or your wife) recommend watching the movie first and then reading (if I like the movie), or going straight to the books?

I finally started re-reading A Song of Ice and Fire, so this would probably have to wait a good while until I finish that, but I don't mind holding off if that would be the thing to do.