Divergent (6/10)

I was hoping Divergent would be The Hunger Games for Shailene Woodley. But Woodley would have to wait for her big break still.

From the first shot of the world the story was taking place, you could already see that the CGI wasn't seamless at all. The desolated city looked fake.

There were only five factions and I wanted more insights to each of them. However, we only got to know Dauntless. Actually, there was a richness in the world of Divergent and in its concept. I could tell the book must have been a much better read.

However, the movie wasn't impressive at all. Neil Burger had a couple of notable movies before, but this was a let down. There were parts that were good of course, but overall, the movie didn't seem to go anywhere and wasn't compelling. It didn't reach a high towards the end and stayed quite constant.

Some bad storytelling here and there. Some loopholes and unexplained situations that never reach a proper conclusion, like that weird ferris wheel transition.

While Woodley was good enough, Theo James wasn't quite as convincing. Sometimes he lacked facial expressions as he just brooded the entire movie. Jai Courtney's character too was unnecessarily harsh. They emphasised so much about faction before blood and yet Dauntless seemed cruel and overly competitive.

As for the more experienced cast like Ashley Judd and Kate Winslet, I didn't think they were written in too well and had too few scenes. And I hope Miles Teller's character would be expanded more in the sequel because he didn't finish well at the end. Why was he running together with the others anyway?

And I pity Amy Newbold. Her character looked like she was the butt of all jokes. Every time she came on she appeared to be so cheesy. It was probably a combination of her acting and how she was written and directed. She was a bad mishap.