Movie Review: Divergent

Divergent is the newest movie to come from another hit YA series of books.  It's brought to the big screen by Neil Burger (Limitless).


In a dystopian future (is there any other kind.....no, seriously, when is someone going to write about a future with sunshine and rainbows?), it is 100 years or so since the great war (which is never really explained or talked about) the crumbling city of Chicago is shut off from the world by a giant wall.  Within the walls, to keep the peace the city is divided into five factions....the brains....the athletes....the basket cases....the princesses.....and the criminals.  Wait, back up, wrong movie.  There actually are however the smarties (erudites), and athletes (dauntless).  Also, the selfless (abnegation), the farmers (amity), and the honest ones (candor).


At the age of 16, all members of society must take a kind of aptitude test to see which of the factions they fit into.  A place for everyone, and everyone in their place (except for the factionless, who don't pass initiation and end up homeless).  This story is about Tris (Shailene Woodley, The Descendents) who takes the test only to find out that she doesn't belong in any one particular group.  This is called divergent.  She finds out quickly that being divergent means not living long if anyone finds out.  At the choosing ceremony she chooses to join the dauntless because she grew up thinking they must have the most fun.  They are the young pretty ones who run around jumping off trains and climbing buildings and getting tattoos.  They are also the group in charge of protecting the city (from what, we are never told).  She trains under Eric (Jai Courtney, Jack Reacher), who's kind of a douche, and Four (Theo James, Underworld: Awakening), who looks like a long lost brother of James and Dave Franco and eventually becomes the love interest of Tris.  While training, Tris comes across a plan of the erudites to brainwash the dauntless to help take over the government completely while also killing off the divergents because they are apparently a danger to society.  Will she stop this heinous plan?  I'm not telling.


There was one flaw with the premise of this movie that kind of bothered me.  Everyone (other than divergents) supposedly get matched up to a specific faction.  You find out, however, that regardless of this, you may still choose to be in whichever faction you'd like anyway.  If this is true, then it doesn't really make any sense whatsoever for them to think that divergents are a danger to society.  If you can look past that, then this film has a decent world that it has built up, and I stayed at least mildly intrigued through the whole thing.  There were some things that just didn't get explained all that well, but mostly minor stuff.  During the initiation however, Tris gets put through physical and psychological testing.  In the psychological she gets through a fear test (in which you find out she must have seen Hitchcock's The Birds as a child) faster than anyone has before, and this poses a threat of exposing her as a divergent.  In the years and years of giving this test, nobody else ever was clever enough to do the same as her without being divergent?  I don't think so.


The acting was fairly solid throughout.  Woodley did a fine job in her role.  I really enjoyed Theo James as the mysterious love interest.  Miles Teller also was quite good as her competition in the initiation.  Oddly enough it was the big stars that seemed a little off to me.  Ashley Judd plays her mother and just did not work well for me at all.  And Kate Winslet didn't seem to be playing at 100%.  Who knows, maybe the pregnancy was throwing her off.


Overall, the movie doesn't have the greatest premise, but they've built an intriguing enough world that I was never bored.  The pace kept up well throughout and never lingered.  It moved smoothly from plot point to plot point and had a cool scene with a zip line that must have run from one side of the city to the other.  It has a few silly scenes and plot points keeping it down a notch, but if you are into the whole YA novel turned movie craze and these kind of stories interest you, then there might be something her for you.  It's kind of like Hunger Games Lite.  I will more than likely revisit this world with the next movie.


Rating: *****----- (5 out of 10)


Memorable quote:
Peter: You wouldn't shoot me.
Tris: Why does everybody keep saying that?