Divergent

In a glut of horrible tween novels being made into terrible movies, this one is probably the dumbest sounding, yet ironically the least horrible. Divergent tells the story of Tris, who lives in a society where people are divided by personality type into five different factions. There's a faction devoted to farming, one who defends the city as a pseudo police force/army, another that focuses on helping others, one that focuses on constant education and learning, and another that only tells the truth...because. When they become adults, people in this world are administered a serum based test that reveals their true faction, which they can either then join or choose to join another, with the condition that they can never return to their old faction. Of course, our main character learns that she is not mentally strong for just one faction, but rather three of them. This is called "Divergent", and because the government can't control the minds of a divergent individual, they're feared by both the government and the people. 

It sounds ridiculous, but the story actually keeps itself in a realm of believability. It emphasizes the importance of personality type actually rather well, showing how each person has to adapt to the group they choose, else they become faction less, and essentially homeless. It serves as a commentary of importance for not just teenagers, but even for adults perhaps struggling with unemployment, stereotyping, or other social problems. Thus, the story actually resonated a bit with me more than I would have anticipated it to.

But at the end of the day, this movie succumbed to my biggest pet peeve of all popular teen stories, made only worse by the quality of the film. The lead character, Tris, is fabulously written. She's shown to be a strong, good hearted person who has many imperfections, but none that keep us from believing her to be a hero. So why is it that, like every other tween story, the moral of this movie is that everything is okay if you have a boyfriend? Especially in a movie where it was pretty obvious that her friends were the one really picking her up, not the men surrounding her. It really frustrated me to see a movie leading a different path go down such a generic one.

The movie had its problems in plot as well, but most of them could be left explained as sci-fi. I was more bothered by a movie moving in such a strong direction suddenly diverging (ha) to such a hackneyed theme. It has to be said that Shailene Woodley saved the movie, giving a very honest and powerful performance in a rather unremarkable role. Gotta keep our eyes on her, she's just going to keep moving up.

Rank - 2/5