Before I begin my review of “Divergent”, I must first
confess that I did not read the book. My
14-year-old daughter and her band of friends that think that this is going to
be the next “Hunger Games” have told me great things about the book. To be honest, I have zero desire to read this
series of books.

The film revolves around Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley), who
was raised in the Abnegation faction.
When tested, she doesn’t fit in with any faction and is deemed divergent
by her tester Tori (Maggie Q), who tells Beatrice that she should remain with
her current faction and never to tell anyone about her test results. Beatrice goes against Tori’s advice and joins
Dauntless. Once in Dauntless, Beatrice
assumes the name Tris as her Dauntless name and begins training under Four
(yes, that’s his name.... played by Theo James) and Eric (Jai Courtney).
The newly minted Dauntless Tris struggles in her training, but
works extremely hard to earn the respect of her fellow trainees and
trainers. Four works with her to improve
her abilities, but also notices that what she lacks in physical abilities, she
more than makes up for in her logic and work ethic. In one of her trials, Four realizes that she
is divergent... like him. Together, they
learn that Jeanine (Kate Winslet), the leader of the Erudites, is attempting to
overthrow the leader of the government, which is currently held by Tris’
father, Andrew (Tony Goldwyn).
The movie was worth watching.
I’ll probably even watch it a second time when it is released on
DVD. Was it “The Hunger Games”? Nope.
Not even close. I had no desire
to see “The Hunger Games” when it was first released. I hadn’t read the book and thought it would
be dumb. When my wife and kid eventually
dragged me into the theater, I was so pleasantly surprised that I looked
forward to the next installment. I had
high hopes for “Divergent” based on the comparison between to “The Hunger
Games”, and sadly, I don’t think the movie lived up to the hype.
“Divergent” was rated PG-13 for language and violence. I think that this was an appropriate rating,
but I also can’t see a reason why I wouldn’t let a 10-year-old watch it. We brought along our 11-year-old friend to
Smitty’s Cinema to enjoy this film with us and she was not traumatized by the
movie.
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