5/10

Rating: 5/10 (25 September 2014)

Not as bad as i thought it would be, yet still not satisfying. In this movie stuff just happens, there is close to none logical sense in the continuity of scene to scene and huge shortcuts on the story which by itself is pretty uninteresting and brings nothing new to the table. Character motivations are unclear or unconvincing and the character themselves are either clichéd, cheesy or banal and are portrayed with equal dullness with the exception of Tris, who at least feels rounded thanks to a very good performance by Shailene Woodley, and whilst Four is miles away from being a real character, Theo James brings some very healthy charisma to the screen. The movie is filled with contradictions and minor plot holes that all add up to very poor storytelling. However the movie managed to be mildly engaging and times and even comes close to be exciting with a couple of enthralling sequences with great set-pieces. The film looks pretty neat and there is a very good cinematography which managed to keep me involved in what ever was going on, I have to give a shout out to the score too. Yet I can't stress enough how chaotic everything regarding characters, story and plot feels. This all culminates in a very dull third act with and equally uninspired ending. Sometimes this "stuff" that happens is actually good, other times it's stupid but laughable (in the first act I was laughing my ass off in the sequences that included the Dauntless and the train, I'm still laughing now), but for the most part it's distracting or and makes you cringe. I have to say that at least you can feel the director is trying o make a good movie and has actual interest for the material and as I said there is some fun to be had, but all in all it just felt mediocre. I don't know if the book is good or not since I have not read it, but it does feel like it borrows some ideas from other pre-existing franchises.