The Five Factions

Rating: 6/10 (27 September 2014)

In a futuristic society the population is divided into castes based on aptitude tests. The names should give you an idea of what direction the people are led into. Erudite, Candor, Amity, Abegnation, and the warrior caste Dauntless. It's this caste that is the defender of the established order. Of course there's a lot of folks out there who are casteless, didn't make the grade in any caste and now are something along the lines of the Hindu untouchable. But the rarest of all are those people whose intelligence quotient is so high they can test into any category. They are called Divergent and the established order fears them because they can move chameleon like into any faction.
Shailene Woodley is such a Divergent, but she's taught to mask it well. To the surprise of many she chooses Dauntless and goes into basic training for Dauntless far more rigorous for this Spartan group than the others. Woodley also discovers a plot to turn this warrior society into some kind of Fascistic tool and this is where the action truly starts.
An interesting idea if not entirely carried out successfully testing for whatever virtues one possesses for your role in society. The great unwashed out there who don't fit in are accounted for. What seems to be missing here is an account for those bad character flaws just where do they go. I suspect they are the villains of the piece but a society as advanced as should test out those people as well.
Woodley makes a nice and earnest lead supported by fellow Dauntless member Theo James a young man who sees what Dauntless is being subverted into. Also note Kate Winslet who is one of the subverters.
Divergent is a nice if not entirely successful portrait of a futuristic society.