20150212: Action-Adventure Review--Divergent

Divergent

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, released in 2014, 139 minutes runtime; action, adventure, scifi.
2. IMDB: 6.8/10.0 from 223,546 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 85 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 41% on the meter; 71% liked it from 132,716 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on HBO.
5. Directed by: Neal Burger.
6. Starring: Shailene Woodley as Tris, Theo James as Four, Ashley Judd as Natalie, Jai Courtney as Eric, Ray Stevenson as Marcus, Zoe Kravitz as Christina, Miles Teller as Peter, Tony Goldwyn as Andrew, Ansel Elgort as Caleb, Maggie Q as Tori, Mikhal Phifer as Max, Kate Winslett as Jeanine.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film is set in the remains of Chicago in a post-apocalyptic dystopian city state. Society is segmented into five factions (dauntless, abnegation, erudite, candor, amity) plus the Factionless.  Those in the factions are privileged, while the Factionless are impoverished.  The abnegation faction controls government.  The film, in short, involves the attempted mutiny of dauntless and erudite to replace abnegation as the rulers.


2. Young people in this society are faced with a choice in their late teens: to choose a faction.  Each teen is given a test to help determine the faction, but the teen's choice is the determining factor, not the test.


3. Tris (well, Beatrice), daughter of Natalie and Eric, sister of Caleb, gets an inconclusive test.  Tori, who administered the test, advises her to just leave and say the test was flawed.  Tris does this.  On the day of choosing, she chooses dauntless over her family's faction, abnegation.


4. The story follows Tris' acclimatisation into dauntless and her involvement with the unspoken motives of dauntless and erudite against abnegation.  The other central theme is her flawed test.  What really happened there?


5. This is the first installment of a trilogy, and some of the first moves of dauntless plus erudite against abnegation are detailed.




3. Conclusions
1. This is another exercise set in a dystopia that is simply not possible...so who cares?


2. There was nothing to balance that: nothing and no one to bring identification, or empathy, or involvement.


3. This film is in the YA female demographic.


4. One line summary:  Teen's coming of age in a factionalized future dystopia.


5. Three of ten


6. Recommendation: fine if you are in the demographic.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Reasonable skill was shown.


2. Sound: 5/10 I could make out the words that the actors spoke.  The background music was between insipid and irritating.


3. Acting: 3/10 I liked the performances of Ashley Judd, Kate Winslett, and Theo James. The rest of the cast was well worth forgetting.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Boring, not involving, not believable.