Directed by:
Neil BurgerCinematography:
Alwin H. KuchlerComposer:
Tom HolkenborgCast:
Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Jai Courtney, Kate Winslet, Ray Stevenson, Ansel Elgort, Ashley Judd, Maggie Q, Tony Goldwyn (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Beatrice Prior, a teenager with a special mind, finds her life threatened when an authoritarian leader seeks to exterminate her kind in her effort to seize control of their divided society. (official distributor synopsis)
Videos (15)
Reviews (11)
I can't believe my eyes. I was worried that Divergence wouldn't be too different from its competition (Mortal Instruments, Twilight and The Host), but I was wrong! Divergence has an excellent idea, a decently thought out story, a nice pace, a perfect cast from the cute central couple to the creepy bad guy, and most importantly more survival and love story than Hunger Games. The highlight of the film were definitely all three phases of the training, which had my heart racing and I'm sure I would have ended up in the abyss after two days, the emotions and empathy really worked at the highest level here. So, for me, a very disturbing post-apocalyptic affair and the best film with a "fight against the system" theme. I shudder to think that in 50 years such a system will be in place here, as the totalitarianism here made me sick to my stomach. Quality appeared where I absolutely did not expect it this year.
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Genre-wise, it is not as pure and systematically politically incorrect as Hunger Games, although there are certain parallels. The heroine, on the other hand, is similarly attractive and vital. There is also much less political subtext and much more survival and love story – by the way, it's okay, you can survive it. The main characters are extremely well-cast, the visuals are stylish, and the dialogues are smart and acerbic – enjoyed it, even though it's full of clichés and has quite uneven action that is gripping at times (full-contact fights) and confusing at others (shooting). That said, it’s good stuff for a wider audience. After Hunger Games, people were craving something new, here it will be like a new sandwich from KFC, not the best food in the world or a revolutionary novelty, but it generally tastes good to everyone.
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Except for the last twenty minutes or so, not exactly a stupid dystopia. But there’s a strong sense of the female element from the source material, so in places it has the spirit of magazines like 'Bravo Girl', or whatever the young girls of today are into (I’ve no idea). As long as they are just testing, it has an original atmosphere, but when they start shooting at the end and try to make an action spectacle, it rides the wave of films that are great material for parodies. And the ending simply killed the carefully constructed – and quite interesting – atmosphere. The comparisons with other contemporary popular sagas by female authors are warranted. Not the Twilight crap, but for example Hunger Games, which benefits from shameless rip-offs of other dystopian works (especially Battle Royale), entertained me a bit more and I didn't feel like banging my head against the wall, as I did with the overly dull conclusion of Divergence.
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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!
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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.
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