Divergent Tops The Hunger Games for Vicarious Thrills

Rating: 8/10 (22 March 2014)

The question everyone who hasn't seen the film, Divergent, wants to know: is Shailene Woodley as effective as Jennifer Lawrence? The difference is in the character development and plot, something neither actress could do anything about.Woodley is as engaging as the rest of the cast that includes Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Kate Winslet, Maggie Q and Ray Stevenson. Woodley, who looks like she could be Lawrence's sister, was seriously considered for The Hunger Games, and was expected to have the lead in Catching Fire, but Lawrence made it back. Catching Fire has a more decipherable plot than The Hunger Games. Woodley's "Tris" in Divergent is as wonderful as Lawrence's character, "Katniss." It's easy to love them both.
Divergent, a young adult book transferred to film, is as entertaining as any following the dystopian trend that includes The Hunger Games and its sequel, Catching Fire. For adults who enjoyed those films, then Divergent does it one better. Not that The Hunger Games was not a good film; it was done very well. However; the society and logic for the games don't work for all some of us reality-thinking adults.
If we were thinking on a broader scale, we might ask a lot of questions if we wanted to, but we don't. These films, including Divergent, based on young adult books, are voyeuristic in that they involve prying observation of "our own children" represented on screen. We want to see our children brave, heroic and caring. We'd like them to save the world we messed up. For grown-ups, Divergent and The Hunger Games are still vicarious thrills. We love watching the young win--even it is against others the same age. As long as those hurt or killed are deserving (meaning bad guys) or going to kill the good guys.
What makes Divergent different from the rest (and I don't pretend to know all the films made or being made in this vein today) is that the scene is on a larger scale and the young are entry-level to the scene. Their journey is just beginning. Grown-ups have already screwed things up by dividing society by its values. Evil has the usual melodramatic pervasiveness in these films; there is always a villain to make what seems to be a good plan (the world as it is presented to us) even better.
That said, Divergent is a decent science fiction film that teaches a lesson to society--or by direct consumption-- teenagers in the world. Teens have questions about who they are or who they should. They questions their actions and reactions constantly. Unlike utopias that portray a perfect world, dystopias portray a world in need. Teenagers, needy or not, can identify with a world in need. The audience or reader sees the distorted world vision, but the characters--the society does not. To be dramatic, most dystopian science fiction we see on film is usually so dark and so grim as to be unrealistic. Most of the world is destroyed by war either among themselves or by aliens.
Good science fiction tackles what we should or shouldn't do as a society when it comes to science or technology. And, especially for film, I think it helps to have a positive ending.