Imaginative, but misguided dystopian adaptation

Rating: 6/10 (10 April 2014)

If you see this because of Shailene Woodley, you have chosen the wrong film. She's a better actor than this. You have to give her credit for stepping outside of her comfort zone, but she's not Jennifer Lawrence here. I believe she has the acting chops to get there, but this film might have been attempting too soon for her.
The movie tries to do a lot. Too much. An adaption of a huge dystopian world, a social commentary on class structures, a coming-of-age "I'm different than most people but that's OK"-type story, and a boot-camp movie. There are some moments that are done very confidently and others that are not. The confident moments are the feel-good little victories, the action set pieces are excellent, the combat, the special FX, dystopian Chicago is very cool, and some of the acting is very good. Although I will say, the casting is better than the acting. The writing and acting are probably the least confident elements to this film
As with many sci-fi and fantasy movies, the directors often focus on the cool or epic before performance and character. Or there's just too many things to think about and too little time to shoot that you have no choice. Either way, these characters were not as deep as they could have been. But you want them to be and that's what was frustrating.
Divergent also suffers from the classic case of adapting but forgetting the essence of the book. It wasn't quite sure what it was, where it lies, who it is, why it exists. It feels like a producer's movie - let's buy the rights to a book, throw some up-and-coming stars on-board, and market it like the Hunger Games sorta, but not fully. But in the producer's book, it was a minor success, as it is making money. So success there.
At any rate, I love this genre and I love original stories and adaptations. I wanted this to be good, but it just doesn't go there. I'm glad it's doing OK because that means more original-ish content will continue to be made.
And to Shailene Woodley, props for trying something new. But for now, stick to the Fault in Our Stars.