Horribly derivative and just plain daft!

Rating: 6/10 (14 August 2014)

So, it seems these days that the word 'dystopia' has come to mean 'any old nonsense society we can think of regardless of how impractical or unbelievable it is.' Snowpiercer, The Hunger Games, Total Recall (the remake) and so on, all share this common belief that any crazy society makes a viable setting just so long as you can gloss over the many, many cracks that even a moment's examination will discover.
Divergent is just a variation of The Hunger Games, when it boils down to it, with teens being forced to do dumb things for the sake of the society. There are five factions, but the only one that would probably be of any interest to, you know, an actual teenager, is the slightly demented Dauntless clan. They run, they leap, they do dumb things, and all just because they can. They are essentially painted as the 'fun' faction and it is hard to imagine, given their rivals, that any teen would pick anything else at choosing time.
Hmmm. Let's see... Farmer, Doctor, Lawyer, or Dogsbody. Or I could be a leaping, fun-getting Dauntless! Such a choice...
There is also the nonsensical 'test' that all teens must take, but the results of which are generally pointless, since the teen can pick any faction at the time of choosing. Yet everyone gets all worked up about the test anyway, like it actual has a point.
All of the usual teen concerns are on offer here, but it is hard to take any of it even remotely seriously. It's just so ham-fisted in its delivery of all these teen issues that it invites derision for the most part.
Acting-wise, all is fair, though no one shines. Almost all of the population appear to be teens, though, with a handful of adults around to spoil the fun and almost no small children at all, which seemed odd.
The main heroine goes through the motions of trying to fit in and failing, all the while falling hopelessly in love with her much older instructor. One begins to wonder if the writer had a crush on one of her teachers that went unfulfilled in her youth.
All in all, an overlong exercise in endurance with a daft societal premise that just plain sets itself up for ridicule.
SUMMARY: Too long, Too derivative. Only worth it if you are a teenage girl who doesn't get out much.