Divergent

We might as well get the comparisons with the Hunger Games out of the way first. The lead in Divergent is a young woman called Beatrice Prior who is very like Katniss Everdeen. They are both physically weak but tactically astute, smart, brave and selfless. They are both a bit too perfect...

SPOILERS

Unlike the post-apocalyptic world of The Hunger Games, the post-apocalyptic world of Divergent is rather small. It's confined to the city of Chicago in fact. Plus a few fields just outside the big wall (or rather, the modest wall with a lot of very tall metal gantries on top). No-one seems to question the fact that there is no civilisation beyond the wall.

Actually, no-one seems to question much of anything, because humans seem to have evolved to have only a single character trait: either selflessness, peacefulness, honesty, bravery or intelligence. It is very rare to have more than one trait... OK.

This is where our heroine Beatrice gets into trouble. When tested at 16 to see which faction she should join (despite living in the selfless faction all this time) we find that she is also clever and brave. Yippee? No. This is bad. She is Divergent and that is bad because she can't be controlled... like everyone else who is just one thing.

Right. At this point I was thinking that the plot is pretty dumb. But the characters are quite likeable so I sort of just went along with it. Fortunately for B the tester had a brother who was killed for being divergent so she lies about the result and tells B to keep her mouth shut, or else. B has to choose a faction at the big public ceremony and goes for Dauntless (the brave ones). This seems a shock to her parents... which is odd since we later find out that her mum grew up in Dauntless. I guess there are no public records of this public event otherwise B could have known that too!

The next thing that is hard to swallow is that Dauntless are the police / army. Since they seem to run everywhere and enjoy jumping on and off moving trains (which somehow are missing the safety feature of locking the doors when the train is moving) this is odd. I wouldn't trust them with a sharp knife, let alone a loaded gun and my national safety... Reckless seems a better name.

Talking of names; B decides that Beatrice isn't a tough enough name for her any more and chooses Tris as her Dauntless name. There seems to be something of a history of this kind of thing in Dauntless, as the newbies discover their instructor is called 4...

Rather predictably Tris struggles in training and gets the crap beaten out of her several times during the stage 1 (physical) training. But 4 clearly likes her and helps her out with some secret tips. I don't know why he has to do it covertly, since he's supposed to be training the recruits so I would have thought giving them advice might be part of that job?

Shailene Woodley does a great job as Tris that keeps me watching through the nonsense. Also the character of 4 played by Theo James is quite intriguing and we don't know for a long time whether he is divergent too, or if he just fancies Tris.

The baddies are excellent too.  Jai Courtney's Eric is either an overly tough sergeant-major type who really just pushes the recruits too hard for their own good because deep-down he cares about them and the job they have to do for Dauntless... or he's a sadist who likes to see people suffer. I don't think we ever quite resolve that in this film.

Which brings us to Jeanine, head of the clever people. Kate Winslet plays her very deadpan, which is wonderful. Is she onto Beatrice from the start? Does she want to take over the world (what's left of it). Every time she utters the mantra "faction before blood" it is quite chilling.

The story charges on. Tris gets kicked out of Dauntless for being not tough enough, but gatecrashes the next test anyway and helps 4 win the game which gets her just enough points to pass the physical round. Cool. So she makes it to stage 2 (mental) training. This is a breeze for her since she has a mind and the other recruits don't. Which becomes a problem for her because it's obvious that she must be divergent. Fortunately the tests are exclusively administered by 4 who covers up for her... yes, he is divergent too.

With 4's help Tris passes the final test and gets inducted into Dauntless. Just in time for the whole faction to be drugged by Eric and the Dauntless leader who doesn't seem to do anything except have secretive chats with Jeanine. Off march the zombie soldiers to enforce the new world order with only the divergent ones actually conscious.

There are a few stretches of the imagination required near the end, but things shape up pretty much as you'd expect. Tris and 4 save the city from Jeanine who it turns out wanted the smart people in charge and planned to do that by executing the entire selfless faction... hmmm, right.

But or heroes are now factionless... and the fact that they just saved the entire society from descent into tyranny doesn't seem to be worth anything so they have to run away and jump into a moving train. We know they'll be back for part 2 though... and maybe there is something outside the wall?

Overall I'd put this one down as "entertaining, but a bit silly".