Divergent

An action sci-fi that will have you riveted. There are conflicting reviews for this movie, so I wasn’t expecting much from it, but I must say that I enjoyed Divergent, enjoying every minute of it. I was thrilled by the satisfying plot and high-quality acting performances, and I must say that this deserves a sequel. The ending suggests that this will be the case, and I’m all for it. The only thing that spoiled the overall impression was its similarity to Hunger Games. It isn’t an exact copy, mind you, but all the way through I was somehow reminded of that movie, although that didn’t affect the score I gave. (28/07/2014)

It is hard to say whether it's because Neil Burger is obviously maturing into a top director, but he managed to take reasonably successful source material and turn it into the most surprising film of the year. Even the first installments of the genre-similar Hunger Games pale in direct comparison, despite their stronger literary foundation, as they lacked a greater connection and subtle explanations in the adaptation. Divergence does this perfectly. The transformation of the main heroine is emphasized until the last sentence, making Shailene Woodley probably the most attractive Hollywood commodity for those aged 20 and above. Maybe it was thanks to the room full of twelve-year-old girls who were leaping into each other's arms with joy that they had actually made it to the highly anticipated premiere, but the atmosphere of the five factions chewed me up much more forcefully than I expected. I don't want to be just one thing. (01/05/2014)

Did I understand (I hope correctly) that this is the story of two robots that dream all of it during memory formatting? The film is like Ender’s Game for Bravo magazine teen consumers, or I don't know what the kids are reading these days, I lost contact with trends similarly to how this film lost contact with logic and meaning. If it weren't for those few solid hallucinogenic burgers, it would have been a horrible reduction diet. (28/04/2014)

Really terrible. The film rips off a lot of other films, the logic is lacking like in The 100 and unless the characters are raging with puberty hormones, they have no chance of survival. What got me was a scene right at the outset where the kids are being sorted into Gryffindor, Slytherin, and.. oops, sorry, a different film. Instead of a talking hat, they all cut themselves with the same knife, so I suppose this society has already tackled the issue of HIV. What follows is the usual mix of weird action, overblown romance, ridiculous acting, and melodrama accompanied by an awful soundtrack, culminating in the film's ending. Considering I gave Season 1 of The 100 one star, I can't go any lower with Divergence, which is a shame. On a final note – 139 minutes!!! (17/08/2016)

This film’s world makes no sense, not even at its most elementary level. Why should permanent peace and quiet be guaranteed by dividing society into five fractions? The system separates children from their parents and creates hundreds of outcasts, and yet it seems that everyone quietly agrees with it and that it works? And if it does work and everyone is where they belong and there’s peace and quiet, why does this society need a cast of lawyers? And a police cast? Or, on the contrary, do these five narrowly defined casts have all the necessary professions? How many people live there? It doesn’t seem that a lot. And why I’m a bothering with this when the adolescent author of the book probably didn’t even think about it? And what was the conspiracy of the intelligent exactly about? I’m just asking. But it’s nice that there’s room for that adolescent cow (whom are supposed to root for, even though her first decision in the film can be summarised as “I don’t want to help people, I’m going with those sexy athletes because they are cool”) to fall in love with the beefcake. Bugger me! (01/08/2014)