Review of Divergent (2014) by Fazha — 22 Mar 2014

Full disclosure: I haven't read the books, but as someone who has read all of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, I can say that this movie suffers from all of the pitfalls of every young adult novel series that followed either of them, that it shamelessly copies the story beats and themes from those greater ones that came before. Divergent offers zero in the way of new or compelling ideas. The premise, that everyone in the future fits into one of exactly 5 psychological types (termed Factions by the film and book) is flimsy at best. The worst offenders are the 'Dauntless', the enforcers/protectors of all of Chicago. You might as well call that faction 'The Idiots' as all they seem to want to do is run around everywhere in dark clothing, climb everything in sight, and jump off of/onto moving trains (although perhaps in the future all trains don't have brakes in which case mea culpa). Why the heroine wants to be a part of that group is as big a mystery as why the Erudite faction (the scientist faction) wants to wipe out the Abegnation (the Amish, er, bureaucrat) faction.

Apart from the story, the actors chosen for the roles all looked like they were taken from The CW, and the art direction and set design looked decidedly 'B' movie, with not great special effects and set design that looks like it was ripped from a Canadian sci fi TV production house.

After seeing this I have no interest in reading the book and hope that the studio doesn't waste it's time and resources with a sequel vs working on something worthwhile.