Divergent - 2 stars

I'm getting tired of these YA novel adaptations that only exist to cash in on the success of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games.  I'm especially distrustful when the book came out within the last few years, and it's the only thing that the author has ever published.  It doesn't necessarily mean the author isn't a good writer, but it does suggest they were trying really hard to create another YA franchise.

Anyway, like Beautiful Creatures and Mortal Instruments, Divergent is the latest Twilight / Hunger Games ripoff.  Set in a post apocalyptic world, humanity is now grouped in five different factions.  There's Abnegation (selfless), Amity (kind), Candor (honest), Erudite (intelligent), and Dauntless (brave).  The idea is keeping everyone in a different group will help keep the peace.  The idea is everyone picks a faction at age 16, and they stay with that faction for life.  Not sure exactly what each faction's role is in society.  Dauntless is the soldier / police force, I think Abnegation is the ruling class, and Erudite is the scientists.  Not sure what the others do.  If you want to know whether a dress makes you look fat, you go find a Candor.  And if you need a shoulder to cry on, you find someone from Amity.  I really got a kick out of the idea that one faction is perfectly content to work in the field all day.

Anyway, Tris (Shailene Woodley) takes her test and finds that she is a divergent.  That means she is too strong willed or something, and she doesn't fit into any of the groups.  She has to keep it a secret, because if they find out she's a divergent, she'll be cast out and be factionless (homeless).  So she joins Dauntless and starts training to be a soldier.

That's the first two hours of this movie.  In the last 20 minutes, a plot actually develops.  It involves Candor wanting to take power away from Abnegation, and use the Dauntless soldiers to kill a bunch of people.  Something like that.

This movie was really boring.  It only exists to set up the next two movies, which of course are already green lit.  There is no reason the movie can't do that and also work as a good movie on its own, but the writers aren't interested in that.  The first half hour is basically nothing but history and exposition.  The movie tells us instead of shows us what the world is like.  The characters weren't well developed, so I had no interest in what Tris was going to decide, or whether she would be discovered.



The training is set up as being incredibly difficult, but it turns out to be pretty weak.  The first time Tris fights another new recruit, they're told that they have to fight until someone can't continue.  We see Tris get punched a time or two, and then the movie cuts to the aftermath.  She only has one bruise on her cheek and seems okay.  So much for brutal combat.  The only tension for most of the movie is seeing whether she'll score high enough to stay in Dauntless.  It's like if the entire plot of Harry Potter was whether Griffindor would score enough points to beat Slytherin. 

There's nothing much to like in this movie.  I did enjoy the scene where she zip lines across the entire city, and the last 20 minutes was somewhat exciting.  But that may have seemed more exciting because of the dullness that preceded it.  Yeah, I'd say you can skip this one.