It’s great that we can converge to review Divergent.

As a Divergent, Beatrice is in danger. The Erudite are attempting to gain control of the city and are intent on exterminating all Divergents. At the choosing ceremony, Beatrice opts to become a member of the Dauntless and must prove herself worthy of this warrior group in a series of grueling initiation tests. Her first step toward redefining herself is to assume the name ‘Triss’. She then must overcome a cruel bully leader of the Dauntless (Jai Courtney) and then must take steps to hide her Divergent status from the head Erudite, Jeanine (Kate Winslet), who is on a ruthless quest to seize the leadership role from the Abnegation.

Greg, I was impressed by Divergent. The movie manages to capture the most appealing elements of both Hunger Games and Enders Game. These two films, along with Divergent, feature a strong young hero who is thrust into a dark world run by corrupt elders. The young hero must pass arduous tests and harrowing simulations. The neophyte hero then encounters real hazards that require an abundance of guts, grit, and resourcefulness to overcome. Underdog stories such as these have a natural, universal allure.

Shailene Woodley is outstanding in her role as Triss, a young woman on a voyage of self-discovery. I found her character to have far more depth and nuance than Katniss in Hunger Games. Triss spends this movie trying to reconcile others’ expectations of her with her own quest for self-knowledge and self-growth. There is everything one would want in a hero journey here. Triss attracts allies among the Dauntless and is mentored by both her mother and Four (Theo James), who also serves as a love interest. Challenges both physical and intellectual in nature are met and resolved in sometimes surprising ways. The hero journey is packed to delicious satisfaction.

Au contraire, Greg, I could be wrong but I believe that Triss saves Four’s life as many times as he saves her’s. There is one particular brilliant scene toward the end of the movie that stands out. Four has been brainwashed to attack and kill Triss, who ingeniously realizes that the only way to save them both is to point the gun at herself with Four’s finger on the trigger. She forces Four to look her in the face, when she knows he cannot fire the gun, and in this way she spares her own life while snapping him out of his hypnotic state. It’s a daring move and is quite possibly the most powerful scene in the movie.

There is great chemistry between Triss and Four, with far more sizzle than we see with Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games. I’m not sure I can disagree with you about her journey of self-discovery being all-too common in movies about young adult heroes. With youth comes naivete and it could be argued that it’s a tiresome missing quality in youthful heroes. But this science fiction setting puts a unique and refreshing spin on this journey. I enjoyed it considerably.

Good observation about the layerings of the villains, Greg. The head villain, Jeanine, is in some ways a strong character but in other ways she seems to disappoint. Her strength lies in her believability; Jeanine’s motives are not entirely evil although they are certainly grossly misguided. Her cold-heartedness is almost understandable given the rigidity of the system of which she is a product. It pains me to say that at the ripe old age of 38, Kate Winslet is cast to play a misguided elder of her society, a symbol of an archaic system that brainwashes and brutalizes its young.

Although I admire this aspect of Jeanine’s villainy, I was left disappointed with the one-dimensionality of her character. We are never told of her backstory, and in fact we know little about her other than she is willing to commit Abnegation genocide in order to raise her faction’s ruling power. Winslet does the best she can with her character but has little to work with. It seems this is the plight of the villain in most movies – they have the depth of cardboard and meander in the film’s periphery until it is time for the hero to topple them.

Divergent offers a fun and psychologically rich story about a young woman’s journey toward self-discovery and self-actualization. This movie sends us into a fascinating world that lumps its citizens into oversimplified categories that fulfill rigid social roles. Once again we have a story along the lines of the Hunger Games that questions a societal status quo that permits and encourages human suffering and injustices. I enjoyed Divergent and recommend it very much. I give it 4 Reels out of 5.

The hero story was outstanding for many of the reasons I’ve already stated. Triss starts out uncertain of her self-identity and is forced by circumstances to undergo a satisfying personal transformation. By the film’s end, she knows her place in the world and how she can engineer positive social change. In addition, her journey contains all the relevant stages of the mythic hero journey. I award Triss 5 Heroes out of 5.

Once again, the villains were a significant notch (or two) below the heroes in their depth and quality. They did fulfill the function of a good villain but didn’t particularly stir me with their personalities or backstories. A month from now, I probably won’t remember them at all. For this reason I’ll give them a mere 2 Villains out of 5.

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