Divergent - A review by Camilo Arenivar

Divergent is a movie based on the debut novel of the Divergent trilogy. I want to say that I have not read ANY of the books, and that my commentary about this film is solely based on the entertainment value delivered as a film, not a film adaptation of a book. So no, I won't be able to shed any light on if it does the book any justice. That being said, I can say that Divergent was highly entertaining despite being a little too long.

The story is based in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where civilization appears to be organized. And my how organized it is, everyone must fit into five distinct factions. Those who do not are considered "factionless" and gee, strike a stunning resemblance to transient homeless people. Teenagers take a test at age 16 to see which faction they belong in. Those who do not conform to the test, do not fit in any one faction or fit in multiple factions are considered a threat to the establishment and are called "divergent". Their existence in this society is not desired.

The movie focuses on Beatrice (later named Tris), played quite well by Shailene Woodley, who most recently played for 5 years on the tv show "The Secret Life of the American Teenager". Beatrice tests divergent, and the movie focuses on her having to hide this and the challenges she faces afterward. Of course, there is a conspiracy and violence and excitement.

I would not categorize the film as a thriller or suspenseful, it is a low degree of sci fi, with a good amount of adventure and action genres. The story feels a little unoriginal (isn't "The Hunger Games" kind of like this?) and the movie seems to have dragged out certain parts, namely the time that Tris spends in training as the faction she has chosen to join. Part of that time also serves to show a budding romance with "Four", one of her trainers. All of it is important, but I think some of the training and fighting scenes could have been decreased for the movie but then I am sure the fans of the book would have balked.

Overall it is an entertaining movie. The visuals of post-apocalyptic Chicago are neat to see (except the parts when you see it is L.A. and not Chicago). The fighting during training serves as some decent action but things do not get really interesting to well over an hour into the film when you start finding out more about the plot, which I really won't get into here but the conspiracy and evil plans are what made the film really pick up for me. If you like these kinds of movies, go see it. It was good, but not outstanding. I am interested in seeing the sequel, which will be called "Insurgent" though and is obviously based on the second book of the trilogy. Something tells me it will be more of what interested me most in this film, which has a running time of two hours and twenty minutes.