Divergent (2014) Movie Review

Director: Neil Burger

Writer: Evan Daugherty, Vanessa Taylor

Story: In a world divided by factions based on virtues, Tris learns she's Divergent and won't fit in. When she discovers a plot to destroy Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents dangerous before it's too late.

Starring:Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet

A new challenger approaches! We find ourselves watching but another movie based on a novel for teenage girls with a teenage girl as the protagonist. This follows Twilight and Hunger Games so you know it’s going to have one sequel and then one book split right down the middle. Honestly I wouldn’t mind that existing. I really didn’t enjoy Divergent as much as Catching Fire. For a movie that tried to feel really grand, it was very closed in terms of location. The pit area in the movie seemed like it was the only place featured in over half the movie. This really annoyed me personally because one of the film’s major strengths was that it built up a really interesting and enthralling universe. I just felt that it would have been awesome to explore more of it. Speaking of a lack of exploration, the two factions; Candor and Amity aren’t explored after the opening narration. Also, I have seen way too many opening narrations recently.

Anyway, some of the supporting characters weren’t really shown enough. They seem like they won’t take any part in the story of the movie. Then BAM! Some pretty big parts of the story happen with them. It would have helped the movie for these slightly smaller characters to be further explored. They look too similar anyway! They spend the valuable time useful for character exploration trying to further explain that the main character is a divergent.

This movie is really interesting and entertaining from start to finish yet lacks in achieving the potential that the universe provides. It is extremely easy to recommend this movie. I definitely had fun watching this movie. So yeah… watch it!