SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT
Bland first film in another teen sci-fi trilogy doesn't diverge far enough from the superior 'Hunger Games'
Shailene Woodley and Theo James play members of the Dauntless faction of fighters in the dystopian tale "Divergent."
- Title: 'Divergent'
- Trailer: With Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet, Theo James. Dystopian teen sci-fi doesn’t fly. Director: Neil Burger (2:19).
- Film Info: PG-13: Violence, language, sensuality. Area theaters.
The “Hunger Games” saga is still going and already we have a successor — another heavily hyped multi-film cycle starring a kick-ass heroine in a dystopian future.
Too bad this would-be heir, “Divergent,” is so unimaginative and desperate to conform.
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Big career lift: Shailene Woodley breaks out as an action heroine in "Divergent."
Given the recent failure of teen fantasies like “Beautiful Creatures,” “The Host” and “Ender’s Game,” you’d think Hollywood would be more careful about picking franchises.
Instead, we get a version of Veronica Roth’s best-selling YA trilogy that plays out like patched together fan fiction.
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Shailene mean fighting machine: Woodley prepares for conflict as Theo James looks on in "Divergent."
The strong female protagonist is Tris (Shailene Woodley), who lives in a futuristic, dystopian Chicago.
For reasons never made sufficiently clear, Tris’ entire society is divided into five Factions, cult-like groups defined by personality traits. There’s Candor (truth-tellers), Amity (gentle souls), Erudite (brainiacs), Dauntless (fighters) and Abnegation (self-sacrificers).
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Tris (Shailene Woodley) is in a tough spot in "Divergent."
Tris was born into Abnegation, but at a testing ceremony at age 16, she ends up showing qualities of several factions, making her a rare Divergent.
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Theo James as Four, who partners up with Shailene Woodley's Tris in "Divergent."
Tris hides her results and chooses to join Dauntless, at which point she and her fellow initiates (including Zoe Kravitz and Miles Teller) have to fight for limited spots in the clan. Luckily for Tris, her feistiness and impressive knife skills catch the eye of a hunky Dauntless trainer called Four (Theo James). But they also attract the attention of the city’s power-hungry leader, Jeanine (Kate Winslet), who wants to wipe out the Divergents.
Director Neil Burger (“Limitless”) and co-writers Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor have streamlined the book, making an already derivative text even more generic. The visual palette is so bland, and the logistical gaps so obvious, that it’s hard to see any personal passion for this project.
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Kate Winslet plays a power-hungry leader out to destroy the Divergents.
Woodley, already touted by some as “the next Jennifer Lawrence,” is a nicely empathetic center, and the movie picks up whenever she and the suitably swoon-worthy James are together. Unfortunately, it grinds to a halt whenever Winslet’s ill-defined villain shows up, and the plodding action scenes deny the supporting cast (Ashley Judd, Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer) a chance to stand out.
Successful teen franchises understand the entertainment value of grand gestures. Florid romanticism, cool special effects and garish costumes go a long way toward distracting us from flaws or uncomfortable truths.
In fact, mass distraction is the whole point of “The Hunger Games,” which — despite its excessive sadism — offers a far more convincing metaphorical universe than this mild knockoff.
After nearly two and a half hours, you may still be hard-pressed to understand the point of “Divergent.” Let me save you some time: it’s to grab our cash as quickly as possible, before the Next Big Thing comes along.
The Story
"Based on Veronica Roth's bestselling series, 'Divergent' depicts a future Chicago after a catastrophic global war. Lake Michigan has dried into a vast marsh, an electrified wall encircles the heart of the city to protect it from outside influences, and society is divided into five factions: Amity, Erudite, Candor, Dauntless, and Abnegation. Beatrice 'Tris' Prior (Shailene Woodley) and her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) are children of Abnegation, the governing faction that rejects vanity, feeds the Factionless, and lives humbly in bare quarters. Society replenishes itself by submitting children of all factions to a test that determines where they are best suited, then allowing them to pick their place for life in a Choosing Ceremony. But Erudite leader Jeannine Matthews (Kate Winslet) insists that everyone should simply know their place, and that those who deviate from a thoughtless routine threaten to undermine the fragile fabric of rebuilding society. Tris discovers during her test that she's Divergent--special and dangerous to the powers-that-be, because she has more than one dominant personality trait and thus cannot be easily sorted into one of five categories that encompass every duty within society. Uninspired by the drab humility of her parents (Ashley Judd and 'Scandal's' Tony Goldwyn), Tris falls in with the Dauntless, the tattooed soldiers who run everywhere, climb everything, and show no fear." — 
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