Gods, the ads for this movie is everywhere and they’re marketing is as the next Hunger Games. Did it live up to the hype?

Here’s my round up of Neil Burger (Limitless, The Lucky One)’s Divergent.

Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

Set in a dystopian Chicago where all kids are given aptitude tests to see which faction they’d fit into – Abegnation for the selfless, Erudite for the smart, Candor for the honest, Amity for the kind and Dauntless for the brave – everybody must belong to a faction, it’s just how their world works. Unfortunately for Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley – The Secret Life of an American Teenager) her aptitude states that she belongs in three (Abegnation, Erudite and Dauntless), which means that she is a Divergent and according to Tori (Maggie Q – Nikita) , her aptitude test examiner, she must keep this information to herself lest she suffer the same fate as the other known Divergents.

This proves to be more than a little difficult when she finds herself part of a rigorous training plan under officers Four (Theo James – Underworld: Awakening) and Eric (Jai Courtney – I, Frankenstein), who are both breathing down her neck and watching her every move.

THE GOOD:

1. The chemistry between Shailene Woodley and Theo James was electrifying. I tried my damnedest not to be affected but the scenes where their Tris and Four share secret glances with each other were like swan songs to the deeply buried young adult in me. It was a very strange position to be in because on one hand, I wanted to roll my eyes at the Twilight-ness of it all but then again I couldn’t because I was having the exact intended reaction that the scene was going for.
   
2. Theo James. Man, those lips! And again with the perfect American accent from yet another British actor. The acting wasn’t anything special and it seems that the performance wasn’t vastly different from what I’ve seen him to in Underworld: Awakening but I guess he wasn’t really given much to work with here. I was actually expecting a lot of shirtless scenes but I guess the actor didn’t go for it or something. The scene where he showed the back tattoos were satisfactory though, if you’re looking for some eye candy.
   
3. The pacing was easy to follow and wasn’t overly complicated, which was nice, considering that they had to introduce a whole new world and a bunch of rules in a short amount of time.
4. Kate Winslet. Considering that she was only in the film for no longer than half an hour, she made for a pretty effective villain. I loved how each strand of her hair stayed in place and very few actresses can pull off that feral look with such iciness. Props also for not being a jarring presence in the movie even though she’s literally the biggest star in there.
   
5. The sets. I especially liked the Abegnation houses; they were pretty cool and I wished they showed more of how the Erudites and Candor lived.

THE BAD:

1. Shailene Woodley. I feel that she may have been miscast if only for the physical requirements of the character. She really looks frail and it’s a very hard sell to make the audience believe that she eventually rose to the top by sheer virtue of physical strength. The acting’s phenomenal and she hits all the right notes emotionally, don’t get me wrong, but it’s incredibly hard to believe that she can actually kick some ass.
   
2. There were too many supporting friends. Seriously. Aside from Zoe Kravitz, I couldn’t tell them apart from each other. The film makers should’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to cut characters out.
   
3. It took a bit too long to get to the main conflict. While I did enjoy the whole training thing and the incredibly blatant exercise in showing us that Tris is “finding herself”, the main conflict wasn’t set up properly and didn’t appear until the last thirty minutes which made it feel rushed. I’m not sure if it was meant to be a surprise or what but I keep thinking why bother to hide it at all? It’s not like it’s huge plot twist.
4. The soundtrack was very jarring because the emo songs had lyrics. I found that distracting as hell and on both occasions that they were played to, I guess, highlight a totally bad-ass scene, the moment was ruined by the music.
5. The age difference between the two leads. The chemistry was perfect and it’s made me gooey inside whenever they throw longing looks at each other, sure. It was fun to watch them flirt and toe that metaphorical line, of course. But put them right next to each other, for some reason Theo James turns into the pedophillic nightmare that every father dreams about. He just looks too old for her (or she just looks too young for him) and it it just passed the skeevy border by a mile.
   

THE UGLY:

1. The subtlety of hand grenade. It’s what the book’a about, I know, but man they really didn’t even attempt to be artful with the presentation, did they?
2. Ashley Judd’s cheek implants. One word: BOTCHED.
   
3. That they let teenagers make choices that they have to live with for the rest of their lives. WTF?

All in all Divergent (2014) is a good adaptation of a novel; it did get the major plot points across and someone like me who hasn’t picked up the book had no troubles understanding the story. It also was very successful in generating sufficient kiligs but unless you’re a die hard fan of the novels, you really won’t see anything out of the ordinary here. While the film wasn’t overly bad, it wan’t overly good either. If you’re looking for the next Hunger Games movie to tide you over until the next one comes out, unfortunately you won’t find it in here.

THE VERDICT: 7/10. You wouldn’t be missing much if you decide to wait for this film on cable TV.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.