Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Divergent Blu-ray Movie Review

Derivative.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 31, 2014

Divergent probably seemed like a sure thing to the bean counters at Summit Entertainment, a once relatively lowly studio that suddenly found itself flirting with “majors” status with its releases of such Young Adult magnets as Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga, while its corporate partner Lionsgate hit similar paydirt with The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. There’s little doubt that the worldwide phenomenon of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games franchise sparked interest in Divergent from the get go, for the two share several salient characteristics. Both feature a dystopian future world ruled over by a seemingly benevolent but obviously fascistic government (or at least a society with fascistic elements), and both offer a plucky heroine who doesn’t quite fit in with the proscriptions of her society. Add just the brim of Harry Potter’s so- called “sorting hat” dividing that society into various skill based groups, and it becomes obvious that Divergent was a seemingly infallible recipe for box office superiority. And truth be told, judging simply by ticket receipts, Divergent’s first chapter (of a multi-film franchise, of course) did stellar business, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars, a sum which is only set to explode now that ancillaries like home video are kicking in. But the very fact that everything from The Hunger Games to (perhaps whimsically) Harry Potter can be cited when talking about the film points up the franchise’s major deficit: Divergent is derivative.

Adolescence, the age range that typically flocks to so-called YA (Young Adult) reading material (and, hopefully, the films culled from such sources), is typically a time of a rather strange dialectic. On one hand, as young folks mature, they begin to grow into their own individuality, discovering their own personal identities, replete with their talents and dislikes. On the other hand, there’s immense peer pressure to blend in, to be one of the pack or to participate in a kind of hive mind. These two disparate elements are dealt with none too subtly in the general context of Divergent, where a post-Apocalyptic culture has restored (imposed?) order by dividing people into five general groups, called factions: Abnegation (selfless types), Amity (peaceful souls), Candor (truth tellers), Dauntless (brave ones) and Erudite (the smarty pants). Heroine Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley), who later adopts the nickname Tris (because--well, Tris sounds cooler than Beatrice, doesn’t it?), finds out in the required testing protocol that despite being the child of two Abnegation members, she’s actually a so-called Divergent, one whose psyche contains a casserole of various elements of the five groups. That means that Tris can’t be easily assigned a group and in fact the nasty government types react badly to Divergents, so Tris must keep her true nature a secret.

Whereas The Hunger Games film took a bit of time to develop the context of that franchise’s society, Divergent jumps right into things courtesy of quick explanatory voiceover from Tris. A quick set of vignettes sets up Tris’ home life with her parents (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) and brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), and then to the testing protocol which is supposed to determine which faction each teenager belongs in. Tris’ test has the unexpected result of showing she’s a so-called Divergent, something Tori (Maggie Q), her tester, urges her to keep secret. (How a government this in control of every little jot and tittle of their citizens’ lives would allow a testing protocol to let Divergents slip through the cracks is never very adequately explained.) When the huge Choosing Ceremony occurs (kids are not required to pick the faction the test indicates they’re best suited for, in one of this franchise’s nice nods to apparent—if illusory—free will), Caleb rejects his heritage of Abnegation in favor of Erudite, while Tris, after a moment’s hesitation, goes with the faction that has fascinated her since childhood, Dauntless.

This short-ish first act moves reasonably well, working in a number of interesting touches, not the least of which is the fact that (again unlike The Hunger Games) Divergent takes place in a “real” location—a post-Apocalyptic Chicago, where perhaps incredibly the elevated trains still run. The implication is that nothing (or at least not much) is left outside of the gigantic walls which have been constructed around the metropolis, and that in the post-Apocalyptic chaos, wise elders decided the only way to ensure peace was to instigate the faction strategy. But there are clear loose threads showing in this supposedly closely knit fabric, with some underlying tensions between various factions who suspect each other of nefarious activities, and what seems to be a burgeoning power struggle for control of the government (run by Abengation due to their selflessness).

But it’s here, after Tris’ choice of Dauntless, that the film really starts to bog down. In what really could have been handled quite easily in a montage sequence, we get a very long and padded feeling second act that details Tris’ trials and tribulations in the militaristic faction. She has to master the physicality required of this group, which almost leads to her dismissal (and it’s already been made clear that there’s nothing worse than the factionless, all of whom resemble contemporary street people). But this all just seems overly contrived, including the little romantic sparks that flare between Tris and Four (Theo James), Dauntless’ training commander. Subplots involving Tris’ new best friend Christina (Zoë Kravitz) and a bullying nemesis named Peter (Miles Teller) also seem rote and unconvincing.

Things start to get marginally more interesting once an element of mind control enters the picture, and the final third or so of the film actually starts picking up steam, as Tris and Four (who may not be as purely “Dauntless” as he pretends) attempt to work together to thwart a huge conspiracy (shades of Katniss and Peta). Oddly, the film doesn’t end with any kind of major cliffhanger, and in fact seems to resolve at least a few of the pressing issues that accrue over the course of two-plus hours (Divergent could have easily shed at least 20-30 minutes with no major harm).

Some fans of The Hunger Games were at least a little let down by the first film in that franchise, only to have their hopes raised considerably by the more viscerally compelling The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and so the second film in this franchise may be able to pick up some of the slack and really establish the Divergent trilogy (or quadrology, as the case may be) as its own distinctive commodity. Many of the pieces are firmly in place here. While director Neil Burger (who will not be returning for the second outing) never quite overcomes the bloat that is apparent throughout this enterprise, he at least inspired uniformly convincing performances from the large cast. Woodley brings a nice vulnerability to Tris that makes her transformation into a steely freedom fighter all the more remarkable. Kate Winslet pretty much steals the show as this film’s “President Snow” (in tone if not in substance), yet another duplicitous manipulator, albeit this time with elegantly manicured fingernails and killer high heels.

Divergent Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Divergent is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with the Arri Alexa series, this high definition presentation offers superior sharpness and clarity but an intentional lack of color and pop almost all of the time. From the dusty fields surrounding Chicago, to the somewhat decrepit scenes of the metropolis itself, Divergent starts in tones of gray and brown and rarely varies from them, with a couple of notable exceptions. Even the fact that Tris ends up in Dauntless, a faction that typically wears dark black, keeps the palette here from ever exploding in any meaningful way. That said, when there are pops of color —as when the initiates slice open their hands to bleed into bowls designating the five different available groups—things look vivid and accurate. There are also a couple of sequences in the offices of Jeanine (the character played by Kate Winslet), where suddenly things are bright white almost to the point of blooming. But contrast is strong enough to rein in this tendency, and to also provide nice differentiation and detail in such locations as The Pit, the kind of ice white hub that serves as a gathering place for Dauntless members. There are several CGI elements (as should be expected), especially once Tris starts "tripping" in simulations meant to test her capabilities, and sometimes those elements look just slightly soft compared to the bulk of this enterprise. Fine detail is exceptional in close-ups and even midrange shots (look at the little loose threads in Tris' sweater in screenshot 5), and though probably digitally manipulated, some of the exterior shots posit great depth of field. No problematic artifacts were in evidence throughout this presentation.

Divergent Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Divergent's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix is about what you'd expect for a blockbuster like this: it's big, it's noisy and it's filled to the brim with great sound effects ricocheting around the surround channels. Everything from nice panning sounds when the elevated trains zoom through Chicago to the punch of automatic gunfire in one of several climactic shootouts provides a glut of immersive activity that makes the soundtrack a lot of fun to listen to. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and the film's kind of house score (by Junkie XL) is well placed through the surrounds and sounds clear as a bell. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range is extremely wide on this problem free track.

Note: While this played faultlessly on my PS3, i had problems with audio dropping out when I utilized PowerDVD in my PC drive. PowerDVD is one of the glitchier programs I've ever used, so my hunch is it's a program issue rather than a disc one, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.

Divergent Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Neil Burger. Burger's a little sporadic here, but he spreads accolades around quite liberally, offering kudos to many of the cast and crew. He does have a tendency to tell us things we should already know, plot wise, or describe what's going on in the scene we're watching.


• Audio Commentary with Producers Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick. This is considerably chattier than the Burger commentary, and contains quite a bit of information about the casting process and the shoot. There's some kind of funny stuff here about Woodley and Elgort playing lovers in The Fault in Our Stars after portraying siblings in tihs film.


• Bringing Divergent To Life (1080p; 47:17) is a set of four featurettes that explore everything from the adaptive process to casting to the shoot. As these things go, this is above average, with both interesting interviews and good behind the scenes footage.


• Faction Before Blood (1080p; 14:51) is a somewhat less interesting piece focusing on the faction systems.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:27)


• Beating Heart Music Video (1080i; 3:48)


• Marketing Gallery includes:

  Theatrical Trailer 1 (1080p; 2:33)

  
  

  Theatrical Trailer 2 (1080p; 2:31)

  
  

  Poster Gallery (1080p)

Divergent Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hey, Tris herself almost gets thrown out of Dauntless at one point, so even those who don't start particularly strong can finish with a flourish, so the writing isn't totally on the wall for this franchise yet, and indeed the story will probably be fully told only when the second film is released. Divergent isn't perfect by any means, and suffers simply by coming after not one but two Hunger Games outings, but at least the foundation has been established for what could actually be a very exciting second chapter. Performances are solid here, but the film does suffer from excess (including a bloated running time). With stellar technical merits and enough good to outweigh the bad, Divergent comes Recommended.