High school dystopia

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2015)

I am a bit surprised that very few reviewers seem to have caught what this is really about. They seem to miss that the world depicted is a high school, seen from the perspective of a typical student. Nobody seems to work; everybody is learning. Teachers have complete authority, with the kids making limited and largely uninformed choices. Their prospects are largely "becoming a successful member of society" or "failing and becoming a hobo". Bullying and suicide are real issues.
In "Divergent", society is organized based on a faction system: factions stand for many things, including castes, professions, traits of character, rites of passage, dress codes... But most of all, they represent the cliques that form in high school: the cool kids (dauntless), the nerds (erudite), the hippies (amity). Due to this, the relevance of the factions for society is a bit bogus; for example, as many reviewers have noted, the Dauntless would make terrible cops or soldiers... But that is besides the point! The dauntless are merely the cool kids, complete with bullies, hot guys, hot girls, extreme sports, and excessive drama.
While belonging to these cliques, most real-world teenagers also feel that they are unique snowflakes. Pretty much every real person felt that way as a teenager; but teenagers are not yet aware of that. In the movie, the unique snowflakes are called "divergents": people who do not fully belong in any clique, who are a bit more than a stereotype. Obviously, the heroine and her boyfriend are "divergents", unlike "99%" of other characters, who are just sheep within their respective cliques.
All in all, this is merely a teenage fantasy. The heroin has doubts about who she is, where she belongs; she succeeds in becoming one of the cool kids; she finds a boyfriend; and at the same time, she retains her "incredibly unique" personality. And we confidently expect her to go on to become a successful revolutionary, changing the world for the better, and fulfilling the entire fantasy, acquiring fame and social status in the process.
It is easy to see why this was successful with its target audience. Watch it if you want a high school flick set in the future, with some added fist- and gun-fights; don't watch it if you want serious sci-fi. To enjoy it at all, you have to see this movie for what it really is. As a 29 year old man, I found it amusing. I ended up caring for the characters despite their stereotypical personalities and had a good time.
6/10