In the faction there's too much friction

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2019)

Okay, apparently the post 2010-world likes dystopian Sci-Fi/Fantasy fables made for, and preferably starring, teenage girls. I realize I'm just an old whiner, but these nowadays dystopian stories are soft and weak compared to the terrific and similarly themed films of the 70s, like "Soylent Green" or "Z.P.G". What was the typical and almost even logical thing to do for Hollywood producers upon noticing the tremendous success of the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games"? Find more reminiscent novels to turn into massively hyped and over-funded film franchises, of course! Neil Burger ("The Illusionist", "Limitless") chose for the books written by the young author Veronica Roth. The main idea behind "Divergent" certainly isn't too bad. In the soulless Chicago of the near future, society is divided into five different factions that each have their own color of clothing to illustrate what type of people they are, like grey for abnegation or blue for erudite. Children are born in the factions of their parents and can remain there for the rest of their lives, or they can choose to move to one of the four other factions at the age of sixteen. There exist psychological tests to help you decide which faction suits you the best, because once you made the choice it's forbidden to change again. When the seemingly ordinary teen Beatrice takes the test, however, the outcome is "divergent" and this should be kept secret as divergent people are considered uncontrollable, rebellious and a menace to this formula of a peacefully structured society. Beatrice makes the instinctive but illogical choice to join the Dauntless faction, where she must battle daily to become accepted, becomes infatuated by the hunky but mysterious Four and stumbles upon a conspiracy to re-arrange the factions that looks an awful lot like genocide. As said, "Divergent" certainly isn't bad and even qualifies as decent entertainment on a Friday night with a bucket of popcorn and a medium-sized beer, but the script is so frustratingly unsurprising and predictable! The supposedly clever plot twists, like the dark secrets of Four or the mysterious background of Tris' mother Nathalie, are so abundantly obvious that you honestly begin to question the level of intellect of the target audience. There isn't a single thing happening in "Divergent" that you can't see coming from three railways stations away and, astonishingly enough, Neil Burger doesn't do anything to put his mark on the film. The action footage is very tame, clearly because the producers wanted to maintain the PG-13 rating no matter what, and the use of special effects or futuristic gimmicks is kept to a minimum, which makes you wonder on what they spent the massive $80 million budget. Perhaps on Kate Winslet's erudite haircut?