Divergent Best Movie Review

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2014)

Divergent is a movie about a young girl, Beatrice (Shailene Woodley), who lives in the dystopian future. In this world, when people are sixteen, they take a test, which assigns them to one of five factions where they will live for the rest of their lives. Beatrice's test results are inconclusive, and she decides to go live in the Dauntless, or the brave faction. In this faction she meets many new friends. She also meets Four (Theo James), who is the faction leader, and falls in love with him. Beatrice, or Tris (her new name) then discovers a plan made by another faction leader, Jeanine (Kate Winslet), to take over the government and kill many innocent people. This causes her to go on a journey with Four, who she is unsure if she can trust, to stop Jeanine.
This movie is filled with splendid acting, realistic visuals, and a twisting and unpredictable plot. Shailene Woodley, who plays the main role, does an incredible job playing a character that has not found out where she belongs and has to lie to survive. It is also filled with realistic visuals, such as Four and Beatrice climbing about 300ft in the air to the top of a Ferris wheel and looking down over a futuristic city. Another effect is when the main character glides through this futuristic city and past tall buildings on a zip line. These realistic effects make the viewer feel as if they have been transported into the movie.
The unpredictable plot makes this movie somewhat hard to follow for people who have not read the book. There was so much that happened in the book and the movie that made it hard for the viewer to understand what was happening. This movie may cause some viewers to ask questions, such as "Where did this woman come from", "Where are they now," or "Who is this?" Another reason that many viewers may have questions is because this plot is shrouded in mystery. Many of the characters reveal their backstory and how they tie into the plot at the end of the movie, so do not worry. I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary training scenes; however, these scenes were nice because they provided action to the movie. This was a long movie, lasting two hours, however, it went by extremely fast because of how much action was in it.
Another thing that I thought I was going to be disappointed with was how similar the plot was to the Hunger Games. Both of these stories are set in a dystopian future with a government who is disliked by many common people, which causes the people to rebel. However, Divergent puts a new and fresh spin on it. Instead of the government being the bad thing, it is a woman that wants to take over the government, who must be stopped. The villain, or antagonist, was a woman, which made the film seem different than others in its genre. One thing that might deter some people is the amount of violence in the movie. There are many scenes, which contain fighting, knives, and blood.
I recommend this movie to anyone interested in an action movie with a new, fresh plot idea. I think that it might have been slightly better if I had read the book because it would eliminate some of the confusion. However, it is still fun movie to watch even if you have not read the book, since it is filled with spectacular acting and visuals, along with an unpredictable, surprising plot.