Movie Time: Divergent

A dystopian future ravaged by an unexplained war that happened long ago. A society ruled by an almost Fascist class system where no one is supposed to be an individual, break the rules, or think for themselves. Welcome to the world of Divergent. This years first entry into the "Movie Based on a Book" genre. While book movies are usually never as good as the books themselves, I get the idea that this one may be the better of the two. It both looks and feels a lot like the hunger games with it's setting, plot, and cast of characters. There are even little nods to it throughout, with things like a bird tatoo on the heroin, and the odd love/hate story between the primary male and female characters. It's not necessarily bad, but it makes you sit there and think, "This has already been done before".

Plot:
Really my opening covered most of the plot itself. There isn't much more to be said about it without giving away to many spoilers. I will say that it was totally predictable, which isn't a bad thing in this case. The story, characters, and events are all clearly headed in a particular direction from the beginning, and the film capitalizes on that. Rather than trying to surprise you, it simply invites you to follow it from odd beginning, to interesting end.

Action:
Since this is an action movie, it needs a mention for action. It's oddly lacking until the third act. You get the sense from the trailer that this is going to have a lot more of it, but the pacing is extremely slow. As the end nears I was beginning to wonder if they were setting this whole story up for a 3 part deal. However, just as the final act seems to be drawing to close, you get the idea that it isn't over yet, and you continue on to the climactic ending.

Acting:
The acting in the movie is surprisingly good. The character roles don't seem forced, and they all mesh together well. You really can feel some of the dilemmas  that Tobias and Beatrice go through as the story progress. Shailene Woody (Beatrice) really carries the movie well. Which is surprising as well, as she doesn't have and major productions under her belt before now. I'm actually looking forward to the other movies in the series, and going in I wasn't even sure I'd like this.

Cinematography:
The style for this film is amazing. You definitely get the idea that the world fell apart. Buildings are in disarray, old parts of the city are grown up with vegetation, and yet you can still tell that life has moved on. New construction has taken place, and the society as a whole has shifted. The special effects are very good, but not over the top. Shots feel like they have enough cuts to satisfy an action movie, without making you feel like the director had no idea what kind of movie he was trying to make.

Major Themes:
There is an overwhelming theme of conformity is bad. Everything that happens is to show that individualism is better than conformity for both a society and the person themselves. It blatantly makes conformists mindless drones, and the "divergents" almost into super heroes. These beings who are so scary ,because they can think for themselves, that they must be eradicated at all costs.

Kid Friendliness: 
While kids probably wouldn't understand this movie, they could absolutely go see it. There is no language, violence is portrayed as wrong, there is no language in this movie, and almost no blood.

Conclusion:
This movie was surprisingly good. It had a lot more good qualities than bad, and I fee l like it was worth the money. If you like action movies, are a fan of the book, or really can't decide what to watch, then Divergent might just be the movie for you.