Review of Divergent (2014) by Shpostal — 23 Mar 2014
Dystopian movies are all the rage with Hollywood, especially in the wake of the "Hunger Games" series. After seeing "Divergent" I couldn't help but wondering if it shouldn't have been called "Derivative".
Not that it's a terrible movie, or the cinematography is terrible - it just doesn't have much in the way of originality going for it, nor does it have the cast of "Hunger Games" caliber. Face it - there's only one Jennifer Lawrence, and her charisma is far superior to any actor or actress in this film. Not even Cate Blanchett can save this movie, coming across as oddly wooden rather than sinister.
Classes of people divided into sectors? "Brave New World". Mind control? The same. Urban decay? Tons of movies like "Warriors".
What makes this an average film is its length, too damn long and a failure to allow audiences to really connect with the acting. We get "Ender's Game" style training and the usual bottom to top struggle to fit into a group.
All in all "Divergent" has possibilities maybe for a sequel that could actually be good - the "divergents" coalescing somewhere and taking on the structured society of the post-war Chicago, where the reason for the war or the reason for the class structure are never explained. Just shows how power the "Hunger Games" series ultimately is.
This review of Divergent (2014) was written by Shpostal on 23 Mar 2014.
Divergent has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
