Divergent (2014)
Directed by Neil Burger
In a world divided into factions based on personality types, Tris learns that she's been classified as Divergent and won't fit in. When she discovers a plot to destroy Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents dangerous before it's too late.
30 connections found
View:
30 films that influenced Divergent
What critics say influenced Divergent
Say what you will about “The Hunger Games” movies, there is a human touch in the performances, direction, and design of those films that somehow, repeatedly, gets lost in films reminiscent of the Jennifer Lawrence uber-franchise.
Divergent has been compared to The Hunger Games, but at least Suzanne Collins’ fantasy had some sort of real-world relevance, even edging up to social satire.
Since the Twilight series ended and The Hunger Games quadrology started, teen-aimed adaptations of novels with fantastical or supernatural themes – among them, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Beautiful Creatures – have been a timid bunch that made an even more tepid total at the box office.
Putting aside the obvious “Harry Potter” rip-off here, allow me to propose a faction for our times: Wannabe knockoffs of “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games.”
Divergent lacks the simplicity in concept of The Hunger Games, an obvious influence and brass ring; it takes exactly 10 words to explain “children must fight to the death for the state’s entertainment,” and a heck of a lot more to unravel why Dauntless and Erudite take their names from adjectives, while the other factions warrant nouns.
With strong themes of female empowerment and individualism mixed in with budding romance and a healthy helping of post-apocalyptic violence, it admittedly bears a more-than-passing resemblance to “The Hunger Games” franchise.
The theme of the individual versus the collective was ably explored in films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Matrix , rather brilliantly explored in last year's The World's End , and rather bluntly laid out in things like 1984, Elysium , Upside Down , and The Hunger Games .
For instance, the conversation about futuristic dystopias and/or social upheaval no longer includes 1984 , Brave New World , or Fahrenheit 451 .
If I mention the fingerprints of George Orwell’s 1984 this review may explode.
But lacking the wit, depth and charm of The Breakfast Club, Divergent simply exists to hit you over the head with its unsubtle theme.
My generation had The Breakfast Club, where you know that John Bender would be Dauntless and Molly Ringwald was a total Erudite.
When "Divergent" director Neil Burger sought inspiration for the movie's teenage heroine, there was one character that immediately leaped to mind -- James Dean's Jim Stark, the rebellious protagonist who defies his parents and peers in 1955's "Rebel Without a Cause."
Advertisement
Dauntless are the warrior/protectors — reminiscent somehow of the Jets and Sharks from “West Side Story,” they are pierced and tattooed and dress in black — while the folks in Abnegation are known for their selfless charity.
But Tris can’t bring herself to stay subjugated within Abnegation, jumping to Dauntless at the last minute, where she meets Four (Theo James), goes through a series of tests/training in her new futuristic variation on the Sharks from “West Side Story”, and makes new friends and enemies.
"Divergent" takes place in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where all citizens are forced to join "West Side Story" factions by taking a cyberpunk mash-up of the Myers-Briggs personality test and an electric-blue Kool-Aid acid trip.
The performance is reminiscent of Jodi Foster’s similarly banal turn in “Elysium”—equally humorless in another picture about a not-so-beautiful future that desperately needed some light moments.
The theme of the individual versus the collective was ably explored in films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Matrix , rather brilliantly explored in last year's The World's End , and rather bluntly laid out in things like 1984, Elysium , Upside Down , and The Hunger Games .
Kate Winslet plays Jeanine, the spokesman for the Erudites, and while she’s not nearly as embarrassing as Jodie Foster in Elysium, her tense performance doesn’t begin to rise above a script that has her hissing about human nature being a weakness.
The group is led by icy Jeanine (Kate Winslet, in essentially the same mean-girl-of-tomorrow role as Jodie Foster in Elysium ).
The theme of the individual versus the collective was ably explored in films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Matrix , rather brilliantly explored in last year's The World's End , and rather bluntly laid out in things like 1984, Elysium , Upside Down , and The Hunger Games .
When editors at HarperCollins optioned the book (by Barrington native Veronica Roth), they likened it to "The Hunger Games" meets "The Matrix," an analogy that lends both the novel and movie to easy and instant classification, which, strangely enough, opposes the whole point of the story.
Minus occasional forays into a virtual simulation that feels cribbed from much better films like The Matrix and Inception (because it is), Divergent moves along a relatively straightforward, predictable track.
Once the domain of Brazil and Blade Runner, the landscape has instead become home to sagas that use the background of an oppressive future to explore universal themes like the importance of individuality — with a love triangle or two thrown in for good measure.
Advertisement
For instance, the conversation about futuristic dystopias and/or social upheaval no longer includes 1984, Brave New World, or Fahrenheit 451.
Unlike Bella Swan in the " Twilight " pics, Tris does not need a man or a dreamy glittering vampire to define who she is and what her future holds.
Woodley is more Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games than Kristen Stewart in Twilight both in character and in acting ability, and her Tris is basically Veronica Roth's Tris come to life on the screen.
Imagine the pain and suffering this film might've inflicted with Taylor Lautner of "Twilight" in the male-lust-object role, and you especially appreciate James' wry, offhanded charisma.