Rated PG-13
Starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Miles Teller, Kate Winslett, Tony Goldwyn
Directed by: Neil Burger
The Story:
In a dystopian future (is there any other type?) the survivors of a war that ravaged the world (or at least America) have been divided between 5 factions to keep the peace. You have Amity (Peaceful), Erudite (intelligent), Abnegation (Selfless), Candor (Honest) and Dauntless (Brave). Each has its role in society and keeping the peace, and when children come of age, they take a test to see what their aptitude is, but they still have one last choice that they can make at a ceremony.
However there are those that the test does not work on. They are called Divergents, and they are being dealt with, permanently.
Welcome to the latest Young Adult fiction to be turned into a trilogy (or larger) movie franchise.
The story centers around Tris (Woodley) who is a Divergent growing up in Abnegation but just doesn't feel it like her parents (Judd & Goldwyn). At the ceremony, her brother chooses Erudite and Tris goes for the Dauntless.
Needless to say, their parents are a bit crushed.
The Dauntless then initiate the newbies into their ranks under the lead of Eric (Courtney) and Four (James). Only they are upping the ante and kicking out the worst recruits as the tests get harder.
If you are kicked out of a faction, you become one of the faction-less, which is the future buzz-word for the homeless.
Not only does Tris have to survive her training and remain with Dauntless, once she learns that she'll be targeted if anyone finds out she's a Divergent, well, that takes the last half of the movie to unspool.
Believe me, it's a long movie also.
While she doesn't have the charisma or chops of Jennifer Lawrence, the rest of the cast, especially Four, try and keep the audience engaged.
However, some poor casting choices on several of the characters end up making several people irrelevant in the overall scheme of things because they are very difficult to tell apart from one another.
Final Grade: C/C+ range
Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I didn't love it, but I hardly hated it. I'll be back to check out the sequels.
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