Alright, so...what do you do when you find out that you are a divergent, a person who – as the well-oiled publicity machine for the young-adult-novel adaptation Divergent has drilled into our skulls for months now – does not fit in just one of the five accepted societal factions in a future dystopia?
My, if you are It Girl Shailene Woodley’s Beatrice Prior, the luminous-haired daughter of Tony Goldwyn (TV’s Scandal) and Ashley Judd, you realize you represent a problem, as well as a solution.
You realize that change will start with you.
Directed by Neil Burger (Limitless), Divergent is an light-ish action thriller based on the first of three popular books by one Veronica Roth and like, the new Hunger Games. It is an engaging movie, for, like the Jennifer Lawrence-led franchise, it features a PYT playing a heroine we can get behind in the face of these unfathomable stakes.
Tris is a young woman in post-war Chicago who, like many young’uns before her, must choose at 16 years old whether she will remain with the faction into which she was born – Abnegation (the selfless folk, so not into the self they even shun looking at themselves in the mirror; they also are in power at the beginning of this saga) – or renounce it to join different one. Prior to the Choosing Ceremony, each teen takes a test that should guide them to this decision.
When Beatrice – who’s a weakness-shunning, strong-willed kinda girl – takes the test, it comes back inconclusive: she could stay in Abnegation or she could leave and join Erudite (the smart people) or Dauntless (the fearless, courageous ones). The problem is her test was inconclusive. Which makes her a divergent. Which makes her a target for the cold, control-hungry Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet).
Anyway, Beatrice ends up choosing Dauntless and re-inventing herself as Tris and catching the eye of her trainer, the mysterious Tobias “Four” Eaton (Theo James), and uncovering a conspiracy to not only eliminate all divergents but also overthrow the government.
Divergent is a serviceable introduction to a new world populated by intriguing peeps played by the likes of Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Jai Courtney, Zoë Kravitz, Mehki Phifer, and Maggie Q, so certain sections are especially taut while others are not.
Meanwhile Woodley and James make for an engrossing couple with a story worth your box office money; she because she kinda rocks, quite effortlessly so, and he in spite of his never taking his shirt off (that dude is H-O-T...so it’s nice to see he brought it without having to bring it).
Can’t wait to see what happens next.
My Rating ***
Photo: Summit Entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment