A good franchise starter

Rating: 6/10 (22 March 2014)

Divergent
Here comes a new post. Another movie review, on this week's highest buzz on the cinemas, Divergent. FYI, I haven't read the book as I write this review, but I just saw the movie just now, on the local theater, which I seldom do.
Looking at the buzz, not just from IMDb and movie sites, but also from my own community of colleagues, I think the title does worth a review.
So the story of the movie is another post apocalypse future of the real world. Everywhere else is presumably wiped out, all the way BUT Chicago. Yeah, you can bet that feels strange for me. Why Chicago? It eludes me why Chicago should be picked as the city surviving the apocalyptic war a hundred years earlier. So anyway, the society of Chicago is then divided into groups, Factions, based on the 5 basic dominant nature of humankind according to the author. This also bothers me, why only five? And after that, why THOSE five?....... okay, enough with it LOL, let's get back to the story. The five traits are intelligence, represented by the Erudite faction; justice, represented by Candar, kindness, represented by Amity; caring, represented by Abrigation; and last but not least bravery, represented by Dauntless. And then we go to the main protagonist, Beatrice, an Abrigation kid, who comes of age and has to choose her own faction freely. Before so she has to go through a test that will advice her what faction suits her best. But guess what, her test results are inconclusive, a Divergent as it's called. Beatrice's faction advice was Abrigation, Erudite, and Dauntless altogether. The test admin Tori then secretly sneaked her out, Divergents are considered dangerous to the society. She then chose to enter Dauntless, and change her name to Tris. It's a logical decision, in my opinion, that she chose Dauntless, even without her being aware of it as logical. Any unaligned behavior would be most tolerable within the Dauntless, which are tasked as soldiers and guards. She then goes through rigorous physical and strategic training. She had to strife well on the physicals, but she surpasses everyone else in collective strategic training. At the next step of training, which is supposed to be the hardest, mental test through hallucination of your biggest fears, she passes with ease, so easy that her instructor Four is suspicious. Four and Tris then get close, and they found out a plan of the smart Erudite wanting to overthrow the caring Abrigation from government. Four then is revealed to also be a Divergent hiding in the Dauntless. The finale is the Erudite manipulates the Dauntless using a chemical controlling agent. Tris and Four's identity as a Divergent is discovered, but they manage to escape death.
For me the cast is quite good, mixing in the seasoned ones with rising stars. After that sexy performance in "The Spectacular Now" Shailene Woodley is to proof to the cinema world that she can have a good franchise movie series. Theo James acts well enough for a newcomer in the big leagues. Same goes for Zoe Kravitz. Seniors as Ashley Judd, Tony Goldwyn and Kate Winslet adds flavor and appeal to the movie as a whole. Unfortunately their role dies out on this movie, since with that kind of ending, I'm sure there will be sequels.
The basic story is indeed very interesting, though indeed too imaginative. In reality, that kind of categorization of the society will not run at all. Logically a normal person will have more than one dominant nature within him or her, even from the five natures that were chosen as the story's faction natures. But then again it is indeed a very interesting story that is also developed well. The story twists are quite good, despite of them being a bit predictable, and the whole story being designed to appeal primarily to young adults.
The advanced development into screenplay is just average for me. The dialog and expressions don't really expand the basic story. But they are alright, in the way that it does just meet the limit to communicate the message of the scenes well enough.
The action sequence is just simple one-move stunts or scenes that are heavily manipulated through editing, making it relatively easy for the cast who are mostly without any previous background in movies of action or fighting. In my opinion the stunts are relatively simple because they are can be easily shoot in one take using multiple cameras in different angles to get the editing process easier and offer more perspective to the shot.
The fighting style is quite unique. It sports a new-to-the eye stance position. It is close, but not being to close, in launching attacks. In my opinion this addition compliments the movie greatly.
Being a movie about the future post-apocalypse world, costumes do play a big part in it. And costumes for "Divergent" doesn't fall into the disappointing category. Costumes for each faction at the same time matches the look for the respective factions and not being to hyperbolic. Touches of coloration is played well in the costumes section. Having the movie's tangible element for story emphasizing focused on the costumes, the makeup for the movie doesn't really have to stand out, just enough to depict the conditions of each faction.
For me the scoring for the movie doesn't really stand out. It is just there to fill out the audible moments. Yet the soundtrack contains many catchy contemporary musics. I hear tunes that sound like Emmy Rossum's songs, which are happening currently, a tune with some clubbing culture influence, but not being too much of a niche's music. The soundtracks are put beautifully into matching moments.
Overall, for me it's a good movie, but still is not as good as "The Hunger Games". From me, I give it a 6 out of 10 score, and a go-and-see- it recommendation.