Divergent - Movie Review
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Director: Neil Burger
Writers: Evan Daugherty (screenplay), Vanessa Taylor( screenplay)
Stars: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet
Action, Adventure, Sci Fi
Let’s go ahead and get it out of the way. DIVERGENT is a lot like THE HUNGER GAMES. So what though? Young adult book adaptations are all the rage these days, so of course there are going to be similarities. It seems to me that if one wanted to take the subject in a particular way, you’d see that boys are getting a lot of similar comic book adaptations these days, and girls are getting a lot of similar YA adaptations. This is the trend right now, so let’s stop judging DIVERGENT in relation to THE HUNGER GAMES. Instead, let’s judge DIVERGENT on its own merits or lack thereof.
The events of DIVERGENT take place in Chicago, in an undefined dystopian future. The residents are divided into five distinct factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Erudite (the intelligent) and Dauntless (the brave). In a ritual not unlike Harry Potter’s sorting hat, teenagers are tested and divided into the respective factions based on their results. However, Tris’ (Shailene Woodley) test results are irregular - she has attributes of several factions, and therefor she’s divergent. For some vaguely explained reason, Divergents are despised and hunted, and she risks her life if she exposes herself. She ultimately chooses the Dauntless, which are essentially Chicago’s police force. Except they don’t really seem to do any policing, instead they stupidly run around the city, hootin’ and hollerin’ and jumping on and off moving trains. The rest of the movie is mostly her training and swooning over her hunky older trainer, Four (yes, his name really is Four). Eventually, and finally after an hour and a half of this, we get to the point: the Erudite conspire to commit genocide on the Abnegation and also the Divergents. Since Tris and Four are Divergents, they team up together in an attempt to thwart the evil plan.
There’s actually a lot more going on in the midst of all of that, and that’s the problem with DIVERGENT. Shailene Woodley is capable enough, as are some of her supporting cast, and while the film presents some fairly interesting concepts and metaphors, it spends too little time explaining why or how this sort of society can believably exist. Instead, we’re forced to accept that Tris “just doesn’t fit in.” It spends so much time meandering through her training to be in Dauntless, as well as the sexual tension between her and Four, that eventually when some forward action occurs and some explanation is offered, it’s too little too late. I realize that the source material is a fantasy romance novel for teenage girls, and it’s great that this particular side of the genre has grown in popularity almost in opposition to the “Twilight” side. I appreciate the value in strong female character and how positive role model characters such as Tris and Katniss Everdeen can be, but it’s frustrating that the writing isn’t as solid as it needs to be in order to actually be substantial. As a result the film ends up being only mildly successful and mostly forgettable.
Written by Kelly White
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