Review of Divergent (2014) by Nicholasbert — 26 Jul 2014

Since it seems like a must, I'll admit I haven't read the books. Not that they are literature anyway. But this allows me to give an unbiased review, not conditioned by my previous opinion of the books. One more thing about the books: any book is better than any adaptation, we've experienced this many times, and there still seem to be people who expect the movie to be at the same level, or even better, than the books. That has never happened.

Anyway, the film was yet another dumb post-apocalyptic action/romance mix, which I've never liked, although I have to admit it's not worse than the Hunger Games. Now, the premise was kind of good: the idea of the factions in particular. But, as always, they've managed to ruin everything with lousy, cheesy dialogue, which we've heard just as many times as many movies like this are out there, and with an immediate look at the characters' first introductions we could decide, right away, if they were good or evil. And the thing is, they stay that way till the end. I call that lack of character development.

The actors were good, I just didn't expect Kate Winslet to involve in such a stupid script. The cinematography was okay, I guess, but then again I'm not an expert in this genre so I might be wrong: from what I read in the reviews it sounds like the consensus veers towards bad special fx. Divergent is nothing special, as expected, and adds nothing to the already inextinguishable stockpile of action carap.