Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James and Zoe Kravitz
Directed By: Neil Burger
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 139 minutes
Summit Entertainment
Our Score: 1 out of 5 stars
War has obliterated the planet, leaving what survivors there are to take refuge in a crumbling Chicago landscape. The residents have divided the city into five factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite. By the age of 16, this bizarre society forces their teens to take an aptitude test that will determine which faction they are ideal for. Looks like it’s time for another movie based off a young adult novel that can’t differentiate itself from it’s siblings.
Beatrice (Woodley) is one of those teenagers mentioned above. She was born into an Abnegation family, but has always yearned to be apart of the Dauntless faction. Why? Who knows. She goes into to take her “test”. All she does is drink a concoction which induces bad acid trip visions. Once she awakens she’s told that she’s a divergent, someone who can actually fit perfectly into any faction. Her “test” administrator tells her to leave and not speak of the test results to anyone. Shadowy conspirators. Mysteries begging to be uncovered. A lot of decent ideas are set-up in the first five minutes followed by an over two hour rough tumble downhill.
Despite having an inconclusive test, on the selection day, Beatrice chooses…you guessed it…the Dauntless faction. And why? Who knows. Dauntless is the military wing of this society, although every time they make an appearance they seem more like adrenaline junkies as they scale buildings and run everywhere. She also decides to go by the name Tris now. Don’t even think about asking me why. We meet her boot camp friend and foes. Christina (Kravitz) turns out to be her true to heart tag-a-long companion. Meanwhile she has to deal with the sophomoric insults of Peter (Miles Teller) and the constant scrutiny of her leader Eric (Jai Courtney). There’s also her instructor and mandatory love interest, Four (James). The first half is an unnecessarily bloated prologue coupled by a few harmless laughs and way too much water treading. By the time things start picking up, we don’t know a whole lot and we don’t care.
The theme, individualism and being skeptical of authoritarian regimes, is the movie’s hammer and they bash you across the face with it repeatedly. This movie not only steals cliches, it repeats the same ones throughout the movie. There’s a dystopian world waiting to be explored along with a power struggle wanting to be uncovered, but this movie would much rather focus on training montages and capture the flag. The bright spot is definitely the acting. Woodley has shown in the past that she’s fantastic and really able to embody whatever role she’s given. She really gives it her all in this and is incredibly likable. The supporting characters played by James, Kravitz and others live and breathe their characters. This cast is also surrounded by an established group of actors and actresses like Kate Winslet, Ashley Judd and Ray Stevenson. Why couldn’t they hand something readable to these people?
At a certain point I merely entertained myself with questions. Like…what kind of war happened to where the remaining survivors thought a society based on dividing their people into factions that hate each other would be a good idea? Why is it one of the largest cities in the United States was spared full blown devastation? If people are given the free will to choose what faction they join, what’s the point of the test? These questions and more will never be answered in the near two and a half hours you’ll be sitting in the theater. Maybe the answers are in the book. Maybe I should go pick up a copy and figure out what’s going on. But I’m afraid if I go and read the book, I’ll be convincing Hollywood to keep up this young adult movie trend and I’m afraid if you go see “Divergent” this weekend, I’ll have to see the sequel.
