Divergent

In the future, Chicago will be governed as a society divided by factions based on personality and virtues. Divergent follows Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley), a member of Abnegation (the "selfless" faction), as she attempts to join the Dauntless faction (bravery, security, etc.) and keep hidden the fact that she is divergent (can't really be placed into any of the five factions) from the Erudites (intelligence), specifically Kate Winslet.

I walked into Divergent expecting another teen action romance film trying to replace Harry Potter (which will never happen). I had lower than usual expectations for this film, but it surprised me. I understand why critics haven't been responding well to it, so I'm going to do my best to explain.

I really enjoyed the first hour of this movie. From Beatrice discovering her divergence, through her decisions, and her training in Dauntless, it was cool to see her character change and react to the stressful situations she's put into. It's not often a film does that without glossing over it in a montage. Woodley gives a much stronger performance than I anticipated, but the rest of the cast seems to fall flat thanks to some clunky dialogue and cheesy deliveries.

Dream and hallucination sequences were somewhat cool to watch. They weren't too trippy, and they played a part in the actual story. It's usually very difficult for me to sit through something similar to these mental tests and easy to lose interest, but the film managed to keep me engaged.

During most of the first hour, the film really ignores the overall conflict being divergence. Watching her transition into a Dauntless member was uplifting, but once the film regains focus on its subject matter, it turns right back into what I expected walking into the theater. A boring, predictable mess. As soon as the forced teen romance that you definitely saw coming hits the screen, everything just falls apart.

I may not be familiar with the source material, but it feels like someone was just bored writing the third act and just gave up. I enjoyed the first half of this film for the same reason I enjoyed Ender's Game. Showing a protagonist struggle is good, but watching bad stuff happen to them because their loved ones are selfless or stupid is not. The genocidal story arc was less intense than the training, making for an underwhelming third act.

The supporting cast is weak to say the least, because the studio probably spent their budget on Kate Winslet. After seeing the trailer, I now refer to the actor who played "Four" as "discount James Franco". Kate Winslet plays her part well, but just watching her, I just thought to myself "Anybody can do what she's doing right now." Zoe Kravitz delivered her lines as they were written, poorly, but it didn't take away from the friendship her character had with Woodley's.

Not since Sunshine have I been so disappointed in the second half of a film. It's almost a cruel trick pulled by the studio making us think we didn't have to watch the same basic story again. But no, we got our Phantom Menace ending with our forced Twilight romance in our Hunger Games dystopian society. So I'm going to break the tie. I was ready to give this movie a B+ half way through, and the second half feels like a C. If you're a fan of the books, you're going to see it anyway. If not, just wait for Mockingjay.

Rating: B-