Divergent

Teenage action movies have always been around, but in many different formations. In the 80´s, we had Red Dawn, with Patrick Swayze, where russian armys invade an american town. I would not call this a great movie, but at the time when i watched it ( i must have been 10 years old ) i thought it was really cool. In the 90´s we got Richard Grieco as a secret agent in If Looks Could Kill. This was actually the only movie he had a major big budget role in, now he can be seen in straight to dvd releases. Moving on to the new century, and in 2008, everything changed with Twilight. This was not a teenage action movie, but had the influences of fitting that type of audience, as well as a different approach in the vampire genre. Personally i did not enjoy any of these movies, because the acting was horrible. Especially in Breaking Dawn Part 1, oh man, i have seen a lot of bad acting, but here you really see why these actors messed up. When The Twilight Saga ended, The Hunger Games took over. And what a big difference, The Hunger Games had much better acting, much better special effects and more stronger dialogue. I suggest you see both movies of The Hunger Games, if you have not had a chance to see them. Divergent is a new teenage action Movie, based on the novel by author Veronica Roth. I have not read any of her novels, so i can not say if the novels are good or bad. But the movie adaption of Divergent, have become a huge box office hit, and movie critics seem positive so far. Is Divergent a promising start for a sci fi action saga, or is this right down there in the drain with Twilight ?

In the future, Chicagos society is divided into five factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Erudite (the intelligent) and Dauntless (the brave). Each person is chosen depending on where they fit in to each category. Beatrice Prior ( Shailene Woodley ) have grown up in the selfless area of Abnegation, where they try and help the poor. Every year 16 year old teenagers undergo a serum-based aptitude test, that will help them decide where they fit in the five factions. A special ceremony will be held, after the results are done. Beatrice also take the test, but the results says she have attributes of several factions (Abnegation, Erudite and Dauntless), meaning she is Divergent. If someone find out, this will put her in trouble, so Beatrice is told by a Dauntless woman named Tori ( Maggie Q ), that Beatrice should not tell anyone, instead Tori register Beatrice as a Abnegation. Beatrice is safe for now, and as the ceremony is on, Beatrice chooses Dauntless, while her brother Caleb ( Ansel Elgort ) choose Erudite. Beatrice get to know 2 new members of Dauntless, Al (Christian Madsen) and Christina ( Zoe Kravitz ), including Will ( Ben Lloyd-Hughes ). All the new members of Dauntless need to be trained, to become prepared of their future. And with the help of initiates instructor Four ( Theo James ), they will be ready to fight for survival. Erudite leader Jeanine ( Kate Winslet ) is preparing to start a war between Erudite and Dauntless, and time is running out.

I will start by saying, Divergent is much better than Twilight, but not as good as The Hunger Games. Since these movies are adaptions from very different novels, i will not compare them. The good surprise is that Divergent is actually a pretty smart movie adaption, with some good acting, especially from leading actress Shailene Woodley. And it is great to see a girl tough as hell, fighting for real, showing that women are not afraid to face danger. Director Neil Burger who also directed the great thriller Limitless, tries to capture the feeling from the novel in his own vision. And he succeeds, in this combination of sci fi action drama, with some heavy issues. Kate Winslet is here, and i like to see her as the evil character Jeanine Matthews. The massive scenery of Chicago looks great, especially when you see how much have changed from the past. So is there anything negative ? Even if i enjoy Divergent for trying something different, i feel that this is more for a teenage audience. I can imagine the novels are written for a certain age category, and you notice that while watching Divergent. But still, this is a good start, and i hope we get more action in the upcoming sequel. If we do, we might have a series of movies that might actually work. I wonder if i can jump between buildings like these teenagers do ? I am going to try it out downtown of Sundsvall, it does not look very hard.

Rating: DDD