Ed's Review Dot Com

Red Wagon Entertainment, Mandeville Films, Summit Entertainment,

Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer,

Things went bad for Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) upon her initiation day in the first film “Divergent”. It ended up with her finding out she is divergent, or a member of all the factions. After the destruction of Earth, the survivors were broken up into factions and focused on one part of humankind to the exclusion of all else. There were those who value truth above all, those who nurture children, the group that cherish simpleness and non-violence to the extreme, and so on. A divergent had all of the qualities at once. Tris, by running away and joining another group of divergents suddenly found her whole world turned upside down. Those she loved were killed, because of her and their attempt to protect a valuable object at all costs. Tris is doubting herself as war seems eminent and there seems no other way than to attack and kill Jeanine (Kate Winslet) who as leader has started an all out search for the divergents to solve the puzzle and secure her rightful place as ruler of mankind.

This is the sequel to Divergent, and in this film, it picks up exactly as it left off. Tris has a valiant task to overcome and she’s ready for it, although she’s questioning herself and the cause of all the terrible things that happened. Does it sound like Hunger Games? Well that’s because there are many, many similarities between the two. This came along, definitely to ride the coattails of Hunger Games, which came along to follow Harry Potter, and so on, and so on. Does that make it worth not going after? No, not really. There are some definite twists along the way, and some of the details in these stories are quite interesting. I am impressed with Shailene Woodley, but she’s definitely not Jennifer Lawrence. Although in the very first Hunger Games Jennifer wasn’t all that polished either, but as the series went on, she got much stronger acting chops. Shailene still has a way to go, but she’s still the strong woman heroine who is required to step in and save the world. This is the theme these days. The men are either two faced, incompetent, or traitorous, and without the women to save the world, we’d be in trouble. This is what we’ve come to expect in 2015. So with that out of the way, Tris is a pretty decent heroine. With plenty of self doubt, she’s a bad ass and and kick butt and take names as well as anyone. I really enjoyed the look and feel of this movie, and was able to look past some of the cheesy acting of the bad guys who were about as hapless as the storm troopers in Star Wars Chapter V. The special effects are good, and the story is not all that bad. Don’t watch this expecting it to be exactly like the book, as it’s apparently not very closely followed, but as a stand alone film, it’s really good. I would definitely watch Divergent first to get the feel from the original and the background you will need for this film. Others found the story hard to follow, and especially the ending part about the relic and what it all meant. I didn’t find it that hard to follow, but perhaps if you miss a few critical pieces it might get that way. I thought it was an intelligent and very interesting action adventure film which gave me a lot of stuff to think about what is important in life and what is trivial. An interesting comparison is TinkerBell who being a pixie is only able to feel one emotion at a time. So when she’s filled with jealousy, it consumes her to wipe out all other feelings. The class system in Divergent is similar. Those who have only one trait miss a lot of life by not having the others. I recommend this film, but with the caveat that it’s not of the caliber of Harry Potter or Hunger Games, but it’s a nice little adventure film. I recommend it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog