Divergent

This review may contain spoilers.

So as far as teen films go, this is probably better than the first Hunger Games film. I would give Divergent an 8/10.

Divergent has a great plot, I actually engaged with the concept much better than I did with the Hunger Games. I also felt the film didn't drag that much except for a couple of scenes nearing the last half hour. Divergent was a great visual film, it just looked aesthetically pleasing. The cinematography was just brilliant, I was captured by it completely. I also liked the costuming and how the costumes represented the factions, that was very well done. The sets in this film were also great to see, they created a strong post apocalyptic world.

Theo James, who played Four, was great and had some fantastic depth to him, I genuinely enjoyed watching him open up and grow as a character. Jai Courtney, who played Eric, was so utterly dislikeable and was able to swing his mood well. Miles Teller, who played Peter, was great to watch and became the bullying jerk of the film very fast. Kate Winslet, who played Jeanine, was a very cold, and calculated villain and much more prominent than any teen film villain thus far (bar Voldemort if you count Harry Potter).

However the person who really stood out to me was the lead, Shailene Woodley, who played Tris. The character of Tris was a very engaging one, as we had to see her struggle through a range of emotions. She never stopped giving her all, each scene she convinced me and I have to say this girl might do better than Jennifer Lawrence if she keeps going.

I found that Divergent tended to wear it's themes on it's sleeve. We basically got told each theme and there was no expectation that the audience could think for themselves, which I thought was lazy writing. I also think the implications of sexual pressure or rape were weird and didn't belong in this film. That's not to say these themes aren't important but they were definitely poorly done in the script of this film.

I didn't like Ashley Judd, who played Natalie, I didn't believe she was a Dauntless memeber at all in the way she handled herself, her performance was really only half there. Zoe Kravitz, who played Christina, was a terrible sidekick/best friend character as she had no strong screen presence. Ansel Elgort, who played Caleb, was Divergent's Josh Hutcherson; which is to say he made my head hurt and I wanted to give him acting lessons right then and there. Ben Lloyd-Hughes, who played Will, literally felt like he was reading a script and I felt very little sympathy when he died.