Review of Divergent (2014) by Alex2542 — 23 Mar 2014

I think people are being too hard on this movie expecting the next big franchise RE: Harry Potter or The Hunger Games. People need to take it for what the books are. Which in my eyes, the books are not in HP and THG's stratosphere, but rises well above the mediocre attempts at creating literary young adult novel franchises. The divergent series is just okay as is. And this movie was good enough. I feel like the studio succeeded because I got the same feeling from the film that I got while I was reading the book. That to me is a success enough to have made the price of admission worth it. Yes, it glossed over important plot points but really the omissions are not so critical that it ruins things. I went with two friends who didn't read the books, they understood the plot, the premise, and they're planning on seeing the all but certain sequel. Was it as good as Catching Fire? No. But I'd say it was right on par with the original hunger games.

And that to me qualifies as passable. More than passable. Shailene Woodley is a terrific choice as the lead and in my opinion she's one of the more underrated actresses in the business. Theo James did better than I expected, and I had my reservations about Miles Teller as the Peter character, but he played it just fine. His arrogance was 100 percent believable.