Divergent

Divergent 

Rating 6 out of 10

Divergent is the latest in a string of trilogy books that are a big hit following the Twilight and Hunger Games series.   I read the first two series and watched the movies and mostly enjoyed them.  I  mildly liked the first Divergent book although not nearly as much as my brother inlaw or others have.  I was looking forward to seeing the movie yet nervous with all the very bad reviews.  I thought the movie was better than the reviews but much more watered down and blah that it needed to be.  In this case I think people that have not read the books will enjoy the PG-13 movie more.  

With Divergent we are somewhere way in the future.  The powers that be have sectioned society into six groups, Honesty, Selfless, intelligence, Peaceful and Warriors.  Then if you don't fit in any of those you are basically cast into the homeless and looked down upon.  When you become of age you are given a mental test that helps you decide which group you will enter.  Once entering that group it's sink or swim.  If you don't make it you are cast out into the homeless group and looked down upon.  Most after taking the test only qualify to go into one group.

Our star Tris (Shailene Woodley) takes the test and qualifies for three different groups.  You would think this is a good thing except it throws a red flag to the people in power (Kate Winslet) as it means you are less likely to conform to society and think for yourself!  The name for this is Divergent.

Tris joins the Warrior group and with help of others tries to hide her Divergency.  She finds the boot camp to qualify is far more difficult and brutal than she expected.  Most of the movie (and the book) are devoted to the boot camp and difficulties she has.  In my opinion too much time is spent in both the book and movie on this.  I was frustrated that many parts (important parts in my opinion) from the book were needless left out of the movie.  I understand the need to tame things for an important PG-13 rating yet Hunger Games did it with still being able to show how rough it was.

I was entertained but not impressed.  My movie buddy Ted gave it a 7.5 but he likes all movies more than I do.