A rip-off of a rip-off?

Rating: 4/10 (24 January 2016)

DIVERGENT is another in a long line of recent Hollywood 'young adult' movies, inevitably based on long-running book series and designed to cash in on the same market as the TWILIGHT saga or the HARRY POTTER franchise. This one's almost exactly the same as THE HUNGER GAMES, featuring a dystopian future world (is there any other type?) split into five different factions. Teenagers must choose a faction in which to live for the rest of their lives.
Yes, it's exactly like somebody watched or read the first Harry Potter film/novel, decided that the whole sorting hat thing was a cool motif and that they could write a whole book series with it applied to real life. Unfortunately, that opening plot point is the only thing this film has going for it, as the rest of it is mere set-up. We watch characters interacting, getting to know one another, and training - lots and lots of TRAINING - for over two hours before an action narrative sort of hits in the last half hour.
The lack of incident and completely predictability of what's taking place on screen - we've been through all this training stuff before in the first two HUNGER GAMES movies and it was boring then - make DIVERGENT a real chore to sit through. I don't know why these films have to have such lengthy running times and so much exposition when all of the stuff we see could have been depicted in a mere half an hour with a handful of pithy moments instead of endless self-indulgence and stretched-out moments. CGI training sequences are not something I enjoy watching.
What I did like about DIVERGENT is that it has decent characterisation for once, much better than in the Jennifer Lawrence franchise. Shailene Woodley is a decent young actress and completely sympathetic in the lead role, and newcomer Theo James makes an impact as her mentor. The supporting cast features the impressive likes of Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, and Tony Goldwyn, alongside more minor bits for Kate Winslet and Maggie Q, and overall the calibre of the acting is strong. It's just a shame that there's no story to go with the characters; I can accept and enjoy well-plotted movies without characterisation, but a film with good characters and no plot is doomed from the outset. We'll see where the sequels go with this...