Divergent - Noodles Review

5 out of 10 Noodles

   Teen angst movies can almost be their own genre nowadays. Whether we'd like to admit it or not, this film was greenlit for one reason only: the success of films based on teen books like Hunger Games, Twilight, and even Harry Potter. And in that respect, it doesn't bring much new to the table. Divergent is based on a popular book series of the same name by Veronica Roth that takes place in post-apocalyptic America, wherein people belong to separately specialized "factions," all under one oppressive government. Ring any bells (*cough cough* Hunger Games)? That's not it though; individuals in this world have to eventually undergo a test by an electronic Sorting Hat type thing, that tells whichever faction fits them best based on their personality (almost like the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter that places you in a house based on what you're like). The main girl, Tris, is found out to be what is called a Divergent; meaning she doesn't really fit into any of these specific faction. Apparently, the government is afraid of these rare Divergents because there's a possibilty that due to their free thinking mindset, they have the ability to revolt and overthrow the power. So Tris instead hides her Divergent-ness (I'll just make that a word) by joining the warrior-type faction. From then on she trains and trains and trains. 

    Now like I said earlier, Hollywood always has knack now for investing in movies based on popular young adults books series. And that's not always the best idea. They get lucky sometimes, as with The Hunger Games series, and then everything tries to play off of it. Unlike the Hunger Games, I have not read any of the Divergent books so I can't really say anything for how well of an adaptation it is. But I will say, that the story and writing in this film were very weak, and I wanna blame the source material there. I mean, most of this movie was just training and preparing for Tris's life. Tris is the shining point of this film, I think Shailene Woodley did a terrific job playing her, and she's really bringing herself into a great career. A lot of her emotional scenes can be likened to Jennifer Lawrence's role as Katniss, but one thing about Woodley is that she's so damn likable, like you wanna see her succeed and get behind her. She's got a trainer who also acts as a love interest, because of course it's a teen book movie, we must have a love interest! I felt he was only okay in the role, a bit wooden at times. The romance between them though was completely wooden and lacked chemistry. There was another badass trainer guy though too, he was awesome. Kate Winslet is also in the movie, and ya almost feel like she's just there to bring it some form of credibility. Of course, her character is important, but I feel like putting Winslet in the role was a bit of a shoehorn. She's good in the role, and you get the vibe that she's a mean government lady, but we didn't really even get much from her. There wasn't much material for her there, and I blame that again on the writing and the source material.  

    A lot of the things that happened in the story didn't really make sense or had holes, and yeah I blame the source material there again because I imagine that's how it probably happend in the book too. For example, there's one guy that's a Divergent, in which the government is literally hunting down the Divergent people, he has a huge ass tattoo that ultimately would just scream "Hey I'm a Divergent!" However, I will honestly say that once the training was over with and the climax kicked in, I did enjoy it. I think some of the emotional scenes towards the climax of this film were done well and convincingly. The action here was executred well, as were much of the stunts. We're undoubtedly gonna compare this to the other movie series based on books. However, it pleasantly surprised me because I thought I wasn't gonna like it at all. It's somewhere between The Mortal Instruments and the first Hunger Games for me, because the former was just an okay film but really missed the mark in appealing to fans or pulling in audiences, and the latter was effective in bringing in audiences and building the world/characters but wasn't exactly great. I don't think Divergent was great, but I'm happy to say it wasn't bad either, with a 5 out of 10 Noodles. The writing and romance are bland probably due to source material, but this movie still has enough to catch interest in viewers, thanks to a great lead actress in Shailene Woodley and a very promising final 20-30 minutes in the film. It was a little longer than it needed to be but kicked into high gear before the length could become too detrimental. The end doesn't leave much for you to think about, and I'm wondering where the sequels will even go. Still gonna see em though.