Divergent 
Directed by Neil Burger
Distributed by Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate
Following in the trend of post-apocalyptic futuristic societies, Divergent brings us a world divided into factions based on one’s morals and virtues.
But is this trend starting to get too cliché?
Based on the first novel of Veronica Roth’s series, Divergent, the story has us follow 16-year-old Beatrice Prior, who was born in the faction of Abnegation, meaning “selflessness.” But as these stories normally go, Beatrice feels out of place and longs for more in this dystopian society.
There are five factions in this society—Abnegation, Amity meant for the peaceful and happy, Candor meant for the honest, Erudite meant for the intelligent, and Dauntless meant for the brave. As creative as this idea is, it’s hard to not see old tropes popping up.
The teens of the society are meant to take an aptitude test to see which faction they truly belong to, whether it be their birth home or not. With this dystopian society discouraging individualism, it’s funny that people aren’t simply placed into factions, but given the illusion of choice.
But for Beatrice, her test doesn’t go as planned. She is labelled as divergent, which means she doesn’t belong in one faction, but three or more of them.
Since everyone in this society rejects anything abnormal or different, being divergent is an immediate death sentence. Feeling already lost enough, she now has to choose which faction she feels she belongs to.
Of course, Beatrice is yearning for more in life so she chooses Dauntless.
Divergent takes you on a path of exploration into one’s self and testing your limits to the extreme, but it’s funny to see this story line in a dystopian society.
Everyone wants to dance on the fringes of death at least once in their life. It’s the thing that brings us closer to our mortality and makes us feel alive. So I wonder why more people didn’t choose Dauntless then. They get tattoos, leather jackets, and get to build up their strength and agility—who wouldn’t love to try that?
Of course this story has to have a romantic story line, because what would all those teen girls be doing if they were just watching a movie for the sake of the story? Nope, they have to gawk at a muscular tattooed boy that loves the weird, shy girl because she is different.
If you like futuristic societies, stick to Hunger Games or read the Divergent novel, which reveals more details of the society and doesn’t dwell on Beatrice’s romantic entanglements as much.
Divergent is a good film to see if you’re impatient about the next Hunger Games film, but this reviewer was left disappointed, bored, and yearning for something a little more divergent than Divergent.
