There was nothing very
original on offer with Divergent, but what it did, it did well – and
certainly made for a more satisfying film than the similar The Hunger Games.
Reminding me of The Wind
Singer but very like every other sci-fi about a caste system and main
characters who do not conform, it followed a young, spirited girl who like
everyone else in her enclosed society, takes a test in her teens to determine
the entire course of the rest of her life. She has been brought up in the
worthy Abnegation faction, who essentially do charity work and live ascetic
lives, and because of this nobility are the entire society’s governors.
Though a film that lends itself
to an awesome trailer, with a focus on dream imagery, it was actually very
straightforward and ordinary. After Beatrice chooses to join the Dauntless, the
peacekeepers, the film segues into the obvious boot-camp film where Beatrice
struggles to make the cut against more physically able students but shows her
super-special-ness in the natural talent when facing fears category. In a
classic American anti-intellectual twist, not only is the kid who was brought
up in the bookish ‘Erudite’ faction the real arsehole amongst Trice’s
classmates, but the Erudites as a whole have launched a dumb plan to
mind-control the Dauntless and slaughter the Abnegations so that they can take
over. Because, presumably, the smart ones are not actually very smart and prefer
incredibly obvious power-grabs.
Of course, the ones to stop
them are the Divergents. The lawyer faction, Candour, apparently never look
into the matter, while the last faction are just Earth Ponies, and nobody cares
about them. Unsurprisingly, Trice finds an ally in a smoulderingly hot young
man who is also divergent, graduated top of his class at Dauntless, and steps
in to save her whenever she’s a damsel in distress, which is rather often for a
film feminists are very keen on.
The plot is obvious, the characters
thin and the overarching plot unlikely, but the film is fun to watch and easy.
Solid.
No comments:
Post a Comment