Sunday, August 17, 2014

Movie Review: Divergent

My rating: 2.75/5

From Amazon: "Divergent is set in a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues. Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy by a faction leader (Kate Winslet) to destroy all Divergents, Tris must learn to trust in the mysterious Four (Theo James) and together they must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it's too late."

Long story short: I got bored.  Maybe it was because the movie followed what I remembered of the book well enough that I just wasn't surprised by anything, or maybe it was too slow.  Or both.  I do remember the book feeling very exciting, and the movie somehow doesn't bring that across. 

Unfortunately it tries to liven things up by mimicking Twilight's style of adding pop music to scenes that really don't need it (e.g., eating in the cafeteria). It was distracting to such a point that I'd turn to my husband and ask if one of the characters had turned on a radio and I missed it.  And Tris just doesn't come across as the strong person the book portrays her as. 

Seeing the movie did make the book's story seem more juvenile to me too and reaffirmed the fact that I don't care to read the rest of the series: She's special; she can't be put in a category like these other dopes! Dauntless is crazy-- they get tattoos and zipline! etc. 

I can't say the acting was terrible (not great, but not terrible), and there was nothing about it that was egregious, so I give it a 2.75. I can't quite bring myself to give it a full 3. 

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