Not as Intriguing as i would have hoped.

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2014)

There's a lot to like and there's also a lot to shake your head with this film. For one, it shouldn't be over 2 hours. Its near 140 minutes but a good chunk is spent just watching the same training over and over again. Shailene Woodley was good in the movie, and I also found that I like her love interest Theo James. I thought his character was much more interesting than Peeta and Gail in the Hunger Games Movies. With that said, I know a lot of people really loved this movie, and I respect that. But I just wasn't thrilled with how it played out.
Before the negatives there are a few positives that made the film at least an enjoyable watch in theaters. I really thought all the actors fit their role, and I thought each character was written very well. Except for the parents but ill get to that later. Each of Tris' friends once she picks her group were fun. And even the twist with a few of the characters later were interesting and kept me guessing. Miles Teller was funny and delivered a few lines that I got a good chuckle out of. I think its funny how Woodley already has a film with Teller as her love interest and a movie with Caleb (Tris' Brother) as her love interest. The ending turned out to be better than the other 3/4 of the movie.
Now onto the negatives, some actors were completely underused in this movie. Kate Winslet (who I expected to have a menacing presence) may have had close to 15 lines in the entire film. Also the parents were given little screen time, and were then just killed off right after each other. The scene with the mom dying was a little emotional sure but I didn't feel connected to these characters due to the few lines and how they randomly show up. The dad's death was poorly handled as well. The music in this movie never seemed to fit. The score that you rarely here was decent (Hans Zimmer). But really all the songs used seemed out of place. I'm never a big fan of any songs that appear in films, much rather stick to the scores. A few scenes the CGI is unbelievably noticeable which shouldn't happen with a big budget film like this one. There were also several CHEESY parts, including a few romance scenes that made me cringe at how awkward they made us feel.
Not reading the book, I kinda felt like I was left with several unanswered questions, but perhaps the sequel will address them. I really hope Allegiant is better, and the change of director may help considering Catching Fire was substantially better than the original Hunger Games and they had a change of director. We shall see, but Overall it can be enjoyable with interesting characters and some cool ideas but disappointed with the final product. 6.7/10