“Divergent” is the latest best-selling book-series film adaptation specifically designed for tween and teen girls starring a female heroine out to save her family and community. Clearly the idea is to duplicate the incredible successes of “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” franchises, but make no mistake, “Divergent” isn’t remotely as entertaining as any of the films in those series. What is it? Very long and not very good.
In a post-apocalyptic world with Chicago as the only city that remains (this is probably the only element of “Divergent” that late film critic Roger Ebert would have appreciated), Beatrice (Shailene Woodley) must decide what she wants to do for the rest of her life. She, and all the other young adults, get to choose among five different jobs – or factions (think “districts” in “Hunger Games”-language), with everyone divided into neighborhoods based on personality traits. Beatrice goes against her family and chooses to join the Dauntless group – these are the fighters, the police force for the community, who guard the very large wall that surrounds the city which will likely be explored further in the next installment.
But everyone also undergoes an aptitude test, which is supposed to tell you which group to pick. The test reveals that Tris (the name she adopts when she joins the cool faction) is “divergent”, meaning she’s a combination of multiple factions. Tris can’t tell anyone her true identity because divergents “threaten the system”. If city leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) or any of her henchmen find a “divergent” (there seem to be a lot of them around even though we’re told they are rare), he or she is killed on the spot.
So, for a painfully drawn-out 2 hours and 20 minutes, we watch as Tris goes through endless training sessions, numerous dream sequences that rival the amount in “Inception”, and from thoughtful teenager to violent killing machine.
With one of the longest set-ups of any film ever put on screen (I timed it out at an hour and a half) “Divergent” takes forever to get going. And throughout this time I keep thinking: “OK – now what?” Every 20 minutes or so something somewhat interesting takes place, and then we get another training scene. The script lacks any imagination or surprises, and attempting to make sense of all the ridiculous details in the lifeless plot would be wasting your time and mine.
Woodley, who deserved an Oscar nomination for her supporting work opposite
George Clooney in 2011’s “The Descendants”, does her best in a tough spot. She’s in practically every scene, but only has a few
showcase moments, so I don’t see award nominations for this role, though this creation by director
Neil Burger could be a popular choice come Razzie time.
In Burger’s previous film, 2011’s “Limitless”, Bradley Cooper took a lot of pills. Here, Woodley takes a lot of needle injections to the neck. The director also pays an unintentionally corny homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” during a few of Tris’ nightmare sequences. It was tough not to burst out laughing several times during “Divergent”, and I got the feeling Winslet was very close to doing the same during her over-the-top evil villain scenes.
For being PG-13, the level of violence in “Divergent” is pretty high, though it’s not as graphic as the first “Hunger Games”. I can’t imagine how fans of the book can possibly stay entertained for the duration. As for everyone else, I borrow a line from the famous poet Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” If either of those roads is taking you to a theater showing “Divergent”, turn around and go the other way.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Divergent” gets a D+.