divergent movie review reddit

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

"Divergent" is all about identity—about searching your soul and determining who you are and how you fit in as you emerge from adolescence to adulthood. So it's all too appropriate that the film version of the wildly popular young adult novel struggles a bit to assert itself as it seeks to appeal to the widest possible audience.

It's the conundrum so many of these types of books face as they become pop-culture juggernauts and film franchises: which elements to keep to please the fervent fans and which to toss in the name of maintaining a lean, speedy narrative? The "Harry Potter" and "Hunger Games" movies—which "Divergent" resembles in myriad ways—were mostly successful in finding that balance.

In bringing the first novel of Veronica Roth's best-selling trilogy to the screen, director Neil Burger (" Limitless ") and screenwriters Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor have included key moments and images but tweaked others to streamline the mythology and move the story along. The results can be thrilling but the film as a whole feels simultaneously overlong and emotionally truncated.

Folks who've read the book will probably be satisfied with the results, while those unfamiliar with the source material may dismiss it as derivative and inferior. (Stop me if you think you've heard this one before: "Divergent" takes place in a rigidly structured, dystopian future where one extraordinary girl will serve either as its destroyer or its savior.) But the performances—namely from stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James and Kate Winslet in a juicy supporting role—always make the movie watchable and often quite engaging.

In the fenced-off remnants of a post-war Chicago 100 years from now, society has been broken down into five factions—groups of people arranged by a primary, defining trait. The Amity are happy, hippie farmers who dress in shades of sorbet. The Candor run the judicial system and value truth about all else. The Erudite are the serious-minded scholars who wear conservative, dark blue. The Abnegation are known for their selflessness and modesty. And the pierced-and-tatted Dauntless are the brave soldiers who protect the city from … who knows what? Whatever the perceived threat is, it requires them to run, scream and practice parkour wherever they go.

Woodley's Beatrice Prior is a member of the Abnegation alongside her brother, Caleb ( Ansel Elgort ), and their parents ( Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn ). They dress in drab colors, eat simply and are only allowed to steal a quick glance in the mirror once every three months when it's time for a haircut. Basically, they're no fun, and Beatrice has a wild streak in her that she's been forced to suppress.  

When she undergoes the aptitude test required of all teens, which determines which faction is the best reflection of one's true nature, her results are inconclusive. She's got pieces of a few different places in her, which makes her what's known as Divergent, which makes her dangerous. Thinking for yourself is a naughty thing in this world, apparently; plus, the angsty inner conflict that rages within Beatrice is something to which the target audience for the book (and the movie) surely can relate.

At the annual Choosing Ceremony, where the teens use their test results to pick the faction they want to join for the rest of their lives—like the last night of sorority rush, mixed with the "Harry Potter" sorting hat—Beatrice dares to choose Dauntless. This means she can never see her family again. (Man, the rules are strict in dystopian futures.) But it also means she gets to train to unleash the bad-ass that's been lurking inside her all along.

Renaming herself Tris, our heroine must learn how to fight, shoot, jump from moving trains, throw knives and control her mind in a series of harrowing simulations, all while competing against a couple dozen other initiates in a demanding ranking system. Eric (a coolly intimidating Jai Courtney ) is the merciless Dauntless leader who's taking the faction—which was founded on the notion of noble courage—in a more militant and vicious direction.

But the hunky trainer who goes by the name Four (James) is the one who will have a greater impact on the woman Tris will become. Quietly and generically brooding at first, James reveals more depth and shading to his conflicted character as the story's stakes increase. He and Woodley have an easy chemistry with each other, but the romance that took its time and smoldered on the page feels a bit rushed on the screen.

Similarly, the supporting figures who had identifiable personalities in the book mostly blend into the background here, including Tris' best friend, Christina ( Zoe Kravitz ). But it is extremely amusing to see Miles Teller , who played Woodley's first love last year in the wonderful " The Spectacular Now ," serve as her enemy here as the conniving fellow initiate Peter. The smart-alecky Teller is also the only actor here who gets to have much fun. With the exception of a few major set pieces—the zip-line ride from the top of the John Hancock Center, for example—"Divergent" is a rather dark and heavy endeavor.

Woodley, though, by virtue of the sheer likability of her presence, keeps you hanging on, keeps you rooting for her. She may not have the blazing, rock-star power of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in " The Hunger Games ," but there's a subtlety and a naturalism to her performance that make her very accessible and appealing. And when she needs to crank it up and kick some butt—as she does in a climactic scene with Winslet as the evil Erudite leader who's hell-bent on eradicating Divergents and maintaining control—she doesn't oversell it.

Plus, there could be worse role models for the eager adolescent audience than a young woman who's thoughtful, giving and strong—all at once. The inevitable sequel will show us what else she's got in her.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

The American Society of Magical Negroes

Robert daniels.

Brian Tallerico

Arthur the King

Cristina Escobar

In the Land of Saints and Sinners

Film credits.

Divergent (2014)

Rated PG-13

143 minutes

Shailene Woodley as Beatrice Prior / Tris

Theo James as Tobias "Four" Eaton

Kate Winslet as Jeanine Matthews

Miles Teller as Peter

Jai Courtney as Eric

Zoë Kravitz as Christina

Ansel Elgort as Caleb Prior

Ray Stevenson as Marcus Eaton

Maggie Q as Tori

• Neil Burger
• Evan Daugherty
• Vanessa Taylor

Latest blog posts

Steve Martin Is an Auteur Without Having Directed a Thing

The Unloved, Part 124: Play Dirty

Beyoncé and My Daughter Love Country Music

A Poet of an Actor: Louis Gossett, Jr. (1936-2024)

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Strong female character leads in violent dystopia.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The lead character deals with important issues abo

Tris sometimes doubts herself but taps into her co

There is a less violence in the movie than in the

In addition to a few longing looks, just one long

A couple of uses of "bitch," "s--t,

In one scene it looks like some of the Dauntless a

Parents need to know that Divergent is the first adaptation of author Veronica Roth's best-selling dystopian trilogy. Set in a future Chicago, the movie is slightly less violent than the book but still depicts the brutal world of a post-apocalyptic society divided into factions or groups. People are…

Positive Messages

The lead character deals with important issues about identity and finding her place in a controlling society. Tris and Four struggle with what it really means to be selfless, brave, smart, and kind, as they explore trusting their own beliefs rather than those imposed by the separatist government.

Positive Role Models

Tris sometimes doubts herself but taps into her courage and ingrained selflessness to protect others even when she doesn't realize it, like when she stands up for Al and takes a punishment for him. Four encourages Tris to use her upbringing's focus on selflessness to be even more courageous. Tris and Four offer a positive example of a teen relationship; they treat each other as equals, defend and protect each other, and go slow with their romance.

Violence & Scariness

There is a less violence in the movie than in the book, but it's still a violent story. Several characters are shot at, injured, or killed including beloved parents. Teen siblings are orphaned by the end of the movie. The Dauntless faction of brave risk takers requires a brutal initiation that includes several scenes of bloody hand-to-hand combat (until someone can't get up any more), knife-throwing, marksmanship, and more. Characters are routinely sparring and injuring one another -- or entering fear simulations to deal with their greatest fears, whether it's wild animals, confined spaces, drowning, etc. A character commits suicide and his dead body is briefly shown. Three masked guys grab Tris, beat her up and nearly throw her to her death. Christina is forced to hang off of a ledge for a certain amount of time to atone for her cowardice. During a climactic sequence, drugged soldiers shoot and kill unarmed citizens.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

In addition to a few longing looks, just one long passionate kiss (with the guy shirtless), and some heartfelt embraces. During a fear simulation, Tris imagines Four kissing her on a bed and trying to convince her to have sex before she's ready, but she defends herself.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

A couple of uses of "bitch," "s--t," and "a--hole." Other insults include "Stiff," "coward," "stupid," "loudmouth."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In one scene it looks like some of the Dauntless are drinking, but it's not clear.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Divergent is the first adaptation of author Veronica Roth's best-selling dystopian trilogy . Set in a future Chicago, the movie is slightly less violent than the book but still depicts the brutal world of a post-apocalyptic society divided into factions or groups. People are killed, orphaned, injured, and thoroughly beat up in bloody hand-to-hand combat (including guy-on-girl fist fights), violent bullying, an armed occupation, and mass killings of unarmed people. There's a central romance, but it remains fairly chaste -- only some longing looks, embraces and one extended, passionate kiss. The movie features a brave, vulnerable, and fierce female main character. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (37)
• Kids say (288)

Based on 37 parent reviews

A great film - possibly suitable for your younger kids, if they have the attention span

Amazing, my favourite movie, what's the story.

In the distant future, Chicago is cut off from the rest of America in a society strictly divided into five factions based on character traits -- Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the kind), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice "Tris" Prior ( Shailene Woodley ) is a 16-year-old Abnegation-born teen whose government-sponsored personality test reveals she is DIVERGENT-- meaning she doesn't fit into just one faction. After choosing to join Dauntless, Tris must survive a brutal (and bloody) initiation process under the tutelage of her handsome, mysterious instructor Four ( Theo James ). Together they discover that the Erudite, led by Jeanine Matthews ( Kate Winslet ), plan to kill all Divergents and take control of the government -- unless Tris and Four can stop them.

Is It Any Good?

The movie adaptation of the popular YA series benefits from a talented cast, a spot-on visual depiction of the factions, the Dauntless Pit, and the story's urban Chicago setting. The acting ensemble is as good as the cast of The Hunger Games and vastly superior to that of Twilight and the forgettable Vampire Academy and Mortal Instruments adaptations . While Woodley doesn't fit the canon description of Tris, she captures the character's mix of vulnerability and courage, her desire to be independent in a world that demands conformity. And although heartthrob Theo James is almost too manly looking for Woodley's doe-eyed ingenue, he definitely gets the job done as the intensely serious Four.

But the movie doesn't live up to the hype or the potential of the written series. The Dauntless initiation process isn't as violent or emotional on the screen as it is on the page, and neither is the buildup of the Tris and Four romance or Tris' friendship with her fellow transfer initiates. Considering the two-and-a-half-hour runtime, there are parts that drag on and yet aspects of the book that seem surprisingly cut. The performances (Winslet is fabulous as the icy Erudite leader, and Zoe Kravitz, Maggie Q, and Jai Courtney are all true to the spirit of their characters) make up for some of the pacing and screenwriting issues, but overall this adaptation falls short of fan expectations. Still, tweens and teens who've read the books should absolutely see the movies and hope the second and third installments fare better.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the popularity of violent dystopian stories aimed at teenagers. What purpose does the violence serve in Divergent ? Is it different to see violence rather than to read about it? How does the violence in the book compare to the movie?

How does Tris compare to other female protagonists in young adult books and movies? What are her views on love, family, and relationships? Does she have the qualities of a role model?

Discuss the central romance between Tris and Four. Were you surprised at how slowly it progressed? What messages about love and sex does the film communicate?

Fans of the book: Was the movie a faithful adaptation? What differences did you like, which scenes from the book did you miss?

How do the characters in Divergent demonstrate courage ? Why is this an important character strength?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 21, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : August 5, 2014
• Cast : Shailene Woodley , Theo James , Kate Winslet
• Director : Neil Burger
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Summit Entertainment
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Book Characters , Great Girl Role Models
• Character Strengths : Courage
• Run time : 143 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : intense violence and action, thematic elements and some sensuality
• Last updated : March 2, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Ender's Game

Sci-fi movies, movies based on books, related topics.

• Book Characters
• Great Girl Role Models

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Review: ‘Divergent’ Starring Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet, Miles Teller & More

Todd gilchrist.

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on LinkedIn
• Show more sharing options
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Print This Page
• Share on WhatsApp

The cornerstone of young adult fiction is its exploration of personal, emotional issues through the filter of ridiculously high stakes, not the least of which because teenagers equate their feelings with the center of the universe. But when film adaptations of that material build real universes to physically embody those issues, the results are decidedly mixed, exemplified by Neil Burger ’s realization of “ Divergent .”

Using Veronica Roth ’s dystopian future as the foundation for a story of self-actualization, Burger succeeds in aping the cool proficiency of its obvious cinematic predecessor, “ The Hunger Games ,” unfortunately without elevating Roth’s concept to more than an effective if slightly overwrought academic exercise.

Shailene Woodley (“ The Spectacular Now ”) plays Tris, a young woman raised in a futuristic society where its citizens are divided into five factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Erudite, and Dauntless. Tested for her aptitude in each, her results come back inconclusive—“divergent,” a forbidden designation since it violates the one-quality-per-person system installed by the government. But when she’s allowed to choose which faction she wants to join, she picks Dauntless, and soon finds herself being trained by Four ( Theo James ) to defend society from invisible threats that lurk beyond the city walls.

Struggling to keep pace physically but outclassing her fellow trainees in strategy and planning, Tris is forced to hide her gifts in order not to attract the attention of government leaders, like Jeanine Matthews ( Kate Winslet ), and Erudite, to whom divergents are seen as a threat. But when Erudite stages a coup to overthrow Abnegation’s rule using Dauntless’ ranks as enforcers, Tris finds herself not only in a fight for her life, but all of society as civil war erupts between factions.

At almost 140 minutes, there’s no better way to describe “Divergent” than as a bit of a slog. Where at the very least “The Hunger Games” (and its sequel) shuffled quickly from macro to micro with its world building, Burger’s film takes its time introducing the idea of factions, and devotes enormous attention to Tris’ identity crisis before audiences get any real sense of the larger societal issues that will be explored.

But notwithstanding the ridiculousness of the notion that a society would ever consider this system an effective way of addressing its problems, needless to say there’s something provocative about the concept of a world that seems to have you figured out even before you do. In that regard, this is bullseye teen material, not just in terms of the practical challenges of choosing a college and a major, but the notion that every choice you make is not just defining, but evaluated by others, whether it’s how you dress or behave, what friends you pick, or what your appetites are.

That said, the way the movie defines the factions is thoughtful but indisputably silly. Members of Dauntless, for example, seem to run everywhere they go, and they travel by constantly running trains, which they jump on and off to board and disembark. Needless to say, the factions are all simplistically rendered, because they’re simplistically conceived, and while those primary colors provide the story with clear conflicts, they reduce the complexity of those conflicts, as if it’s remotely possible to simply focus on one personality characteristic, or switch off others, once a largely arbitrary decision has been made which is most important to each individual.

Thankfully, Woodley makes for more than uncertain enough of a hero to add detail and meaning to the implosion of this world. Not unlike “The Hunger Games” actress Jennifer Lawrence , there’s little artifice to her performance, and the mundane honesty of her reactions create a believability that the world would otherwise lack. As Four, meanwhile, James manages the considerable accomplishment of seeming like a real grown-up man rather than a teenage girl’s image of a dreamy boy, and he makes the character’s transformation from hardass to collaborator seem natural, if inevitable. Meanwhile, Winslet conveys one-dimensional menace in a way that is probably more attributable to the script than her skill as an actress.

But ultimately, the elasticity of the story—its sometimes lackadaisical, others aggressive pacing—is what may challenge audiences to embrace this in the way it has “The Hunger Games” even more than the silliness of its universe. Because there’s some genuinely great ideas in the film, and some terrific character work, but it’s given such uneven attention, alternately languished upon and glossed over, that the portrait Burger creates feels complete without, well, making us feel a whole lot else.

Ultimately, Burger’s film is, to its credit, probably second-best among the YA adaptations that Hollywood has mounted since “ Twilight ” put the subgenre on the map. But with a second installment already going into production, one hopes that the series’ world-building is done and its world-living can begin. Because the quality that “Divergent” still lacks is the broader emotional resonance that makes it distinctive—which is why, for the time being, it’s not yet being defined by anything other than what it isn’t. [B-]

Most Popular

You may also like.

Independent Film & Music Reviews

• Must See Movies
• Highest to Lowest Ratings
• Festival Coverage
• Must Hear Music

Home » Review » Movie » Divergent

Divergent is chock-full of holes, but Woodley and her bright band of co-stars try valiantly to save the day.

With with young actresses emerging as bankable leads in sci-fi and action pictures, taking a bit of the pie from their hulking male counterparts, casting the right actress in those lead roles is more crucial than ever. Jennifer Lawrence has set a high standard with her work in the  Hunger Games  series, and Shailene Woodley holds her own as the star of  Divergent , the first installment of adaptations of Veronica Roth’s best-selling YA series.

Woodley, a proven talent ( The  Spectacular Now ,  The Descendants ), takes command of the film as our heroine Beatrice with a strong spine and perceptive wit. Unfortunately, even her presence (along with the rest of the rock-solid cast) can’t patch up the dull script, which is head-scratchingly nonsensical at worst, campy fun at best.

The aforementioned head-scratching begins with the film’s setting, a near-future dystopian Chicago divided into five distinct factions, each with their own role to play in maintaining an orderly, functioning society. This societal structure is so impractical it’s funny, though it serves its ultimate narrative purpose of providing rabid YA fanboys and girls with the same fantasy tribalism that was an appealing foundation for the  Harry Potter series.

Beatrice was raised in the faction called Abnegation, an Amish-like group that prides itself on selflessness and humility. The kids in Dauntless, the enforcer faction whose members traverse the damaged city streets (and rooftops) like a parkour S.W.A.T. team, catches Beatrice’s eye as she shares their (ostensible) taste for adventure and camaraderie. Now that she’s turning 16, she’ll have the opportunity to switch factions, if she so pleases, after taking a VR test meant to suggest which caste she’s best suited to based on her attributes. Administering her test is a tattoo artist named Tori (Maggie Q), who informs her that her attributes are too numerous to shove her into any faction, an anomaly referred to as–you guessed it–Divergent.

Problem is, Divergents are considered a threat to society as they disrupt the order of the faction system. Erudite, the faction of intellectual snobs, hates Divergents the most, and their leader (Kate Winslet) seems hell-bent on sniffing them out and doing god-knows-what with them. (Probably something evil!)

Beatrice chooses to align with Dauntless, where she trims her name to Tris and gets thrown into a sort of bootcamp where the brutality of the training borders on felonious. She makes a handful of friends, bonding immediately with petit nice-girl Christina (Zoe Kravitz). Miles Teller plays a prick former Candor who bullies Tris at every turn, a dynamic made more interesting if you’ve seen the two co-star in The   Spectacular Now.

Director Neil Burger ( The Illusionist ) is too precious with the source material, and the overwhelming amount of expositional information (conveyed largely in uninspired voiceover by Woodley) dampens any urgency and drama the actors manage to get rolling. For every well-acted, emotional minute between Woodley and her co-stars, there are 10 hollow minutes of tiresome explaining. The art design is forgettable and generic, and the world Roth has built doesn’t seem to be grounded in any sort of logic. Most of Chicago is literally crumbling to bits, while the yuppies in Erudite walk around in buildings that look as immaculate as giant Apple stores. This is the most obtuse kind of social commentary, since the logistics of it all don’t make any sense. Roth’s analogy is too extreme, too undercooked.

The hunky Theo James plays Four, Tris’ commander and crush. Woodley and James have good chemistry, but again, the script betrays them. When Tris glimpses a bit of Four’s back tattoo, and he peels off his shirt to show her the rest of it without a second thought, it’s hard not to let out a little groan. At one point, Tris proclaims proudly, “I am Divergent!” as Burger zooms in slowly. She might as well be looking straight into the camera. It’s schlock like this that no actor, no matter how skilled, can recite naturally.

Divergent is too by-the-book, literally and figuratively (and ironically), for it to be a viable challenger to  Hunger Games ‘ throne atop the YA market, but it’s got some thrilling set pieces (an urban zipline scene is a standout) and has a great cast, making it a distant–but solid–second.  Divergent  is chock-full of holes, but Woodley and her bright band of co-stars try valiantly to save the day.

Divergent  trailer

Divergent Movie review

• Newsletters

Site search

• Israel-Hamas war
• 2024 election
• TikTok’s fate
• Supreme Court
• All explainers
• Future Perfect

Filed under:

Why Divergent fails at everything it sets out to do

Share this story.

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Why Divergent fails at everything it sets out to do

Divergent is that YA novel series and film franchise where everyone’s sorted into groups by personality. No, not Harry Potter . It’s a dystopia. No, not The Hunger Games . The less famous one. No, not The Maze Runner .

In both the books and the movies, Divergent borrows heavily, and poorly, from other YA franchises, and this is its Achilles' heel. It clearly does not understand the tropes it borrows, and this is why the Divergent films — the third of which is in theaters now — have never performed as well as studio executives expected them to, and why the books have been largely forgotten after their early robust sales. As much as it might have had the superficial trappings of the next big thing, it never laid the groundwork it needed to to become a bona fide phenomenon.

Divergent was supposed to be the next Hunger Games. It’s not.

When Divergent emerged on the pop culture scene, it was expected to be the next Hunger Games : a YA book-to-movie franchise that's set in a dystopian universe, features a butt-kicking female lead, and stars a promising, up-and-coming young actress.

Instead, Divergent became an also-ran. It’s certainly not an embarrassment to its studio on the level of Vampire Academy, but each new installment of the series has made less money than the one before, and now the Hollywood Reporter reports that the budget of the final movie will be slashed .

Perhaps more importantly, the Divergent franchise has nowhere near the cultural impact of its peers. No one is graffiti-ing quotes from Divergent around Ferguson , Missouri, as a political protest. No one is making millions by self-publishing their Divergent fanfic . No one hates Divergent as much as they hate Twilight, and no one loves it as much as they love The Hunger Games or Harry Potter.

Divergent fails because it doesn’t understand how to use the YA tropes it borrows

What makes Divergent such an anemic excuse for a pop culture phenomenon is that it borrows popular tropes from other YA franchises without understanding what makes them compelling. The Hunger Games became a runaway hit and is a dystopia, so Divergent is a dystopia. Harry Potter fans love talking about which Hogwarts house they’d belong to, so Divergent gives us the faction system. But Divergent fails to include the political commentary that gives a dystopia its power or the world building that gives personality sorting room to breathe.

A true dystopia exaggerates a trait in our own society, taking it to its worst possible extreme. If we don’t do something about this misogyny, we’ll become The Handmaid’s Tale ; if we don’t do something about this communism, we’ll become 1984 ; if we don’t do something about this anti-intellectualism, we’ll become Fahrenheit 451 . The Hunger Games, which contains some surprisingly sophisticated political commentary, includes among its targets income inequality, celebrity culture, and the glamorization of war.

Divergent takes place in a society where all citizens are sorted into five factions based on their dominant personality trait: The selfless are sent to Abnegation, the intellectual to Erudite, the kind to Amity, the honest to Candor, and the brave to Dauntless. Leaving aside the sheer laziness of naming two factions with adjectives and three with nouns, what trait could this faction setup possibly be mirroring in our own society? If we don’t do something about these BuzzFeed quizzes, Divergent warns us, we may find ourselves going down a dark path.

Of course, Divergent didn't invent personality sorting in YA: Harry Potter famously has the Hogwarts house system, and regardless of your feelings about the series , no one has ever claimed that Harry Potter is a failure because of it. On the contrary, fans are constantly sorting themselves and each other into Hogwarts houses; Tumblr is full of indignant posts about whether the world needs hybrid houses like Slytherclaw or Griffinpuff.

But unlike Divergent, sorting is not the single distinctive trait of the world of Harry Potter ; it is one aspect of a carefully textured, well-developed world, and that allows Harry Potter to hand-wave the parts of the system that don't make sense. (It's so reductive! And are Slytherins evil or just misunderstood?) By making the faction system the sole defining attribute of its world building, Divergent puts pressure on the trope that it is not able to bear.

Divergent ’s Tris is a poor copy of The Hunger Games ’ Katniss

The world of Divergent is not designed to make any kind of meaningful comment on our own society. It’s designed for character study. And in theory, the protagonist’s journey from self-sacrificing Beatrice of Abnegation to badass, pleasingly selfish Dauntless Tris to serves-no-master-but-herself Divergent Tris could be compelling. The key word here is could. Instead, Tris is paper-thin — a flat, blank excuse for a Strong Female Character. She’s clearly modeled on The Hunger Games ’ deliberately cold Katniss Everdeen, but that characterization is not earned.

There’s a telling moment early in the first book, on Tris’s first night at Dauntless headquarters, when she listens to one of her fellow Dauntless transfers cry himself to sleep. Tris knows she should want to comfort him, but instead she’s filled with loathing and disgust: "Someone who looks so strong shouldn't act so weak. Why can't he just keep his crying quiet like the rest of us?" It’s strikingly similar to Katniss Everdeen’s first night in the Hunger Games arena, which she spends filled with disgust for a fellow tribute who lights a fire. "You might as well be waving a flag and shouting, ‘Come and get me!’" Katniss fumes. Before long, she’s contemplating murder: "Obviously this person’s a hazard. Stupid people are dangerous. And this one probably doesn’t have much in the way of weapons, while I’ve got this excellent knife."

So what makes Katniss’s murderous rage work while Tris’s silent hatred falls flat? The Hunger Games grounds Katniss’s disgust in everything we know about her: She has a well-established survival instinct, honed through years of subsistence living. We hear her repeated admonitions to herself that emotion is a weakness she cannot afford, and we recognize that her life is literally on the line. All this groundwork makes Katniss’s anger understandable, even endearing.

Divergent is a character study about a blank and boring character

In contrast, Tris’s anger depends on one thing: the fact that she resents being raised to put others' needs before her own. Now that she has left Abnegation for Dauntless, she is ready to be brave and selfish and put herself first. And her needs, apparently, include indulging a deep and profound hatred for weakness.

Tris’s hatred for weakness is what animates her through the first book, convincing her that it is a good idea to demonstrate her own strength by repeatedly jumping onto and off of high-speed trains and trying to take down the corrupt government. It is her single distinctive character trait: She is not clever, she is not kind, she is not a survivor, she is not a hero, she is not manipulative, she is not a leader, she is not interesting. She just hates weakness.

That is not enough to build a compelling character out of — but it’s all Divergent has. And because Divergent is designed primarily as a vehicle for character study, the entire franchise feels empty.

Here's what we're left with: a dystopia that has no political statement to make; a flat world built around a single, flimsy plot device that can't support it; and a character study of a dull and unlikable one-note character. It's Harry Potter without the detailed world building, The Hunger Games without the social commentary or the charismatic lead character. Divergent didn't become The Hunger Games because, in the end, it doesn't understand what makes The Hunger Games compelling. It can only manage incoherent and superficial similarities.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said that there are four factions in the Divergent world. There are five.

Will you help keep Vox free for all?

At Vox, we believe that clarity is power, and that power shouldn’t only be available to those who can afford to pay. That’s why we keep our work free. Millions rely on Vox’s clear, high-quality journalism to understand the forces shaping today’s world. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today.

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

Next Up In Culture

Sign up for the newsletter today, explained.

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

Pig kidney transplants are cool. They shouldn’t be necessary.

The voices Oppenheimer left out

Bird flu jumped to cows, then to a human. Who’s next?

Why is there so much lead in American food?

Multigenerational housing is coming back in a big way

You can’t afford to buy a house. Biden knows that.

‘Divergent’ Reviews: Is it as Good as ‘Hunger Games’?

Critics are not loving the Shailene Woodley young-adult thriller

“Divergent” hits theaters Friday with the pre-release buzz positioning it as the successor to “The Hunger Games.”

Those are heavy expectations, and based on initial reviews, the adaptation of Veronica Roth ‘s bestselling young adult novel labors under the weight.

Many critics have yet to chime in on the film, so the consensus could shift, but initial reviews for the picture are unkind, with many arguing that the film suffers in comparison to other futuristic fables. Currently, the film holds a 17 percent “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Also read:   ‘Divergent’ Review: A Little ‘Hunger Games,’ a Little ‘Harry Potter,’ a Lot of Dull

“Divergent” features rising star  Shailene Woodley as Tris, a young woman who finds out that she will not fit into her dystopian society. It’s a view of the future in which people are cordoned-off based on their virtues and personality traits. The picture, directed by Neil Burger ( “Limitless” ), co-stars Kate Winslet and Theo James. The film may be review-proof; box office tracking is strong for the picture and the film is widely expected to dominate theaters when it opens Friday.

In TheWrap , Alonso Duralde groused that he suffered from a profound feeling of deja vu. The film’s premise and vision of an unforgiving future is cribbed from too many better movies and books, he argued.

“When Shakespeare rejiggered ‘Pyramus and Thisbe,’ it was 80 or so years after its first translation into English,” Duralde wrote. “It’s a classier move than stealing from characters whose ink is barely dry on the page.”

See photos : 15 ‘Divergent’ Stills: Kate Winslet, Shailene Woodley, and Theo James in Summit’s Sci-Fi Thriller

It’s all preamble, Variety’s Andrew Barker  carped. The film exists as a launching pad for future sequels, instead of as a standalone movie.

“…Divergent’s’ uncertain sense of setting, bloated plot, drab visual style and solid yet underwhelming lead turns from Shailene Woodley and Theo James don’t necessarily make the best case for series newcomers,” Barker wrote. “Fans of the books will turn out for what should be a very profitable opening weekend, but with future installments already on the release calendar, the film’s B.O. tea leaves will surely be read with care.”

Also read:  ‘Divergent’ Star Shailene Woodley Trashes ‘Twilight’s’ Love Story

Forbes’ Scott Mendelson was more charitable, praising Woodley’s “terrific” lead performance and the film’s creation of a genuinely compelling heroine. Yet, he too faulted the picture for being exposition-laden. It’s all foreplay, he seemed to gripe.

“Considering there are only three books in the series, spending nearly a full film on what amounts to an origin story is a little frustrating. In that sense, it’s less ‘Batman Begins’ and more Ridley Scott ‘s ‘Robin Hood,’” Mendelson wrote.

It’s all a bit dull, lamented Screen International’s Tim Grierson in a tepid assessment of the picture’s demerits.

“It’s not that ‘Divergent’ doesn’t have any provocative ideas,” he wrote. “Though somewhat generically executed, the film bemoans society’s encouragement of conformity and even works in a commentary about the evils of genocide. But because its thematic content mostly feels second-hand, ‘Divergent’ doesn’t stir the imagination.”

See video:   Shailene Woodley’s ‘The Fault In Our Stars’ Trailer Released — Need a Tissue? (Video)

Though many critics bemoaned the film’s similarity to “The Hunger Games” and “Ender’s Game,” others praised its performances and adherence to its source material.

The Huffington Post’s Lisa Parkin said fans of the novel will love what Burger and company pulled off, while praising the casting of Woodley and James.

“I think book fans and dystopia lovers alike will be thrilled with this adaptation,” she wrote. “The ‘Divergent’ movie truly captures the spirit, adventure and excitement of the book, and I cannot wait to see again once it’s out.”

Todd Gilchrist was less caffeinated in his IndieWire review of the film, knocking it for being overly long. But he did credit it with being the second-best adaptation of a young adult favorite after “The Hunger Games.”

“Using Veronica Roth’s dystopian future as the foundation for a story of self-actualization, Burger succeeds in aping the cool proficiency of its obvious cinematic predecessor, ‘The Hunger Games,’ unfortunately without elevating Roth’s concept to more than an effective if slightly overwrought academic exercise,” Gilchrist wrote.

Of course, critics hated the “Twilight” films too, and audiences didn’t seem to care. Box office success can be the best revenge.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘the divergent series: allegiant’: film review.

Shailene Woodley is back for the third part of the sci-fi series based on the hit YA trilogy.

By Jordan Mintzer

Jordan Mintzer

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

The locations change and the characters each get a new tattoo, but there’s nothing very divergent about Allegiant , the third screen adaptation in what will be a four-part series based on Veronica Roth’s bestselling YA trilogy. With director Robert Schwentke returning to the helm, and a cast lead by Shailene Woodley suiting up for another sci-fi actioner where big ideas are often bottled down into resounding clichés , this handsomely made effects-driven vehicle offers more of the same and then some — a fact that will hardly bother fans who’ve already pledged their allegiance to the franchise, but won’t convert any nonbelievers.

Slicing Roth’s final novel into two separate movies à la The Hunger Games, and giving us a world-within-a-world conundrum à la The Maze Runner , it’s hard to see what exactly distinguishes this series from its competitors outside an initial premise which, however ridiculous, had a certain hook to it. But now that the various personality factions of Divergent and Insurgent have been dissipated, we’re left with a familiar Brave New World -type scenario where Woodley’s Tris Prior takes on an evil empire that wants to turn humans into genetically purified puppets.

Release date: Mar 18, 2016

To be Candor about it (using Divergent -speak), this is far from a Dauntless enterprise, and despite four credited writers one often gets the impression that Allegiant was designed by an algorithm trying to please the maximum amount of viewers with the minimum amount of flair or intelligence. Any movie where, about 20 minutes in, the lead character says, “I think we’re finally going to be okay,” guarantees this is not going to happen, yet it takes Tris a good hour to figure that out while everyone in the audience is already several beats ahead of her.

Despite such obvious flaws, the film’s opening reels have a certain panache to them, especially after Tris , her lover Four ( Theo James ) and their assorted allies or former foes flee a city on the verge of civil war toward a no man’s land that lies beyond a massive concrete wall. (The fact that the city is meant to be dystopian Chicago, and the no man’s land controlled by a fiefdom at O’Hare Airport less than 20 miles away, somewhat detracts from the wonder of it all. But at least these are real places.)

The early scenes allow Schwentke and VFX supervisor Stefen Fangmeier (Wanted ) to dish out some impressive effects-pieces, coating Tris and her buds with blood-colored acid rain that pours down on the apocalyptic landscape they hike across, then afterward with a Matrix- like slime meant to decontaminate them when they arrive at the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, where they learn that their beloved Windy City is actually just a giant laboratory experiment under constant observation.

Given new wrist tattoos and new assignments at the Bureau, Tris is sent to meet with the hamlet’s supreme leader, while her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), her friend Christina ( Zoe Kravitz ), her frenemy Peter (Miles Teller) and the very skeptical Four are dispatched throughout a military-like complex that looks a lot like the training facilities in the other films — albeit with enhanced technology that includes mini drones and a virtual-reality surveillance network used to monitor Chicago’s activity.

Related Stories

Shailene woodley joins hbo's reese witherspoon, nicole kidman drama.

Tris’ big encounter with Bureau chief David ( Jeff Daniels ) in his Oblivion -style office provides some of the film’s most crucial revelations, including the fact that nearly everyone has been genetically modified except, somehow, for her. Yet these key sequences are undercut by the rather goofy science and psychology behind it all — not to mention the idea that Tris actually believes David has good intentions, while anyone watching Daniels with his buzz-cut and head honcho suit (lapel pin included) can only know that he’s a wolf in designer clothing.

Once the cat is out of the bag, the story heads in predictable directions and does so with little ingenuity or wit, even if Teller’s snarky Peter is there to inject random touches of humor into such a self-serious enterprise. Other characters are given short shrift, with Factionless leader Evelyn ( Naomi Watts ) and Amity peacemaker Johanna ( Octavia Spencer ) facing off back in Chicago in what seems to be an entire plotline reduced to a few forgettable moments. Ditto for the ongoing love affair between Tris and Four, which is dispatched with in a handful of sun-drenched tete-a-tetes (and tongue-to-tongues) that feel like pure fluff despite the conviction of the two leads.

Indeed, Woodley has always managed to make Tris and her various transformations — from Dauntless to Divergent, from Divergent to genome queen here — seem rather natural, and she pulls it off once again even though the hair/makeup unit went a bit overboard on the highlights and eyeliner this time. James is fine as her swarthy arm-candy, while the rest of the cast works it way through lots of half-baked dialogue.  

Yet even passable performances can hardly dispel the kitsch level of this third installment, especially with a finale whose major plot device looks like it was lifted from an episode of the old Batman TV series. At best, what Schwentke and his skilled craft team have done is set up the major confrontation of the last chapter, providing one or two action highlights along the way — most notably an early scene where Tris and co. scale the wall surrounding Chicago like a band of alpinists from the future. Otherwise, for a film that takes great pride in its heroine’s nonconformism, pretty much everything in Allegiant feels conventional.

'The Divergent Series: Allegiant' Trailer 2

Distributor: Summit Entertainment Production companies: Red Wagon Entertainment, Mandeville Films Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Miles Teller, Zoe Kravitz, Naomi Watts, Jeff Daniels, Octavia Spencer, Director: Robert Schwentke Screenwriters: Noah Oppenheim, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Stephen Chbosky, based on the book by Veronica Roth Producers: Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shahbazian Executive producers: Neil Burger, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Barry  Waldman Director of photography: Florian Ballhaus Production designer: Alec Hammond Costume designer: Marlene Stewart Editor: Stuart Levy Composer: Joseph Trapanese Casting directors: Venus Kanani, Mary Vernieu Visual effects supervisor: Stefen Fangmeier

Rated PG-13, 121 minutes

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Colin farrell on rise of irish actors in hollywood: “we punch so far above our weight”, zoe saldaña says she expects marvel’s ‘guardians of the galaxy’ will return: “it’d be a huge loss”, netflix enters its dan lin era, benedict cumberbatch, olivia colman to star in ‘war of the roses’ remake for searchlight, ‘the lost boys’ co-screenwriter says warner bros. wanted “brutal” rewrites to peter pan-inspired script, shakira says she and her sons found ‘barbie’ “emasculating”.

Divergent (2014)

• User Reviews
• o - o - o -
• the relationship between the two leads develops naturally i.e. they don't see each other and go 'you're my soulmate', in fact they don't really get on at first so this is believable and refreshing
• the lead actress (Shailene Woodley) playing Tris is extremely natural and one of a very few actors I've ever seen who has convinced me that they are grieving (usually grief in films is just 'oh, they're dead, I'm so upset' ... swiftly moves on with their day..) - Actually both of the leads (Theo James as well) play their roles really well
• I loved the point of view shots like when Tris looks at Four during the training and you see it from his perspective and then the camera cuts to his face to get his reaction to the look she gives him (there are other similar scenes) and it just adds to the effect of feeling like these are real people and I empathised with them more as a result
• Yeah the background story for the city is quite thin but who cares, stranger things have happened in the real world and what I like is that we're given a sense of 'this is what they've been told but is that what's really happened?'. I'm not sure if that's in the book or if the film makers wanted to add some realism for us grown-ups but when they question what's out there, I got the feeling this might be similar to The Island (2005) - that's not a spoiler it's just my opinion and probably totally off base

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Divergent: 'Shailene Woodley is lovely, but this film is an endless slog' – first look review

Like the last Hunger Games movie, Neil Berger’s take on Veronica Roth’s bestselling novel is too long and poorly plotted

Divergent is out in the US on 21 March. It will be released in the UK on 4 April.

H ow Orwellian is college? Very, if Divergent is to be believed. Adapted from Veronica Roth’s bestselling novel , it stars Shailene Woodley as Beatrice, a 16-year-old girl trying to find her place in a world seemingly modelled on a series of giant frat houses, each named after an abstract virtue or noun. There’s Amity, whose people farm the land, Amish-style; there’s Abnegation, who think only of others and work in government; there’s Candor, who tell the truth, doubtless on course for a career in daytime TV; there’s Erudite, who like to show off their vocabulary but can’t for the life of them work out why they are an adjective and not a noun like everyone else.

Finally, there’s Dauntless, very much the extreme sports set, defined principally by their carelessness with regard to train timetables, since they always run, jump and leap for the train home to an accompaniment of Stomp-style drumming. These gonks are being groomed for jobs in the military, although how you would get them to show up on the battlefield is anyone’s guess. I’ve seen better discipline in the Keystone Cops .

Beatrice, who wears baggy skirts, boots and her hair in the loose bun of an Emily Bronte fan, jumps ship at her initiation ceremony and chooses Dauntless over her native Abnegation, and very soon, she is running and jumping for moving trains, too, all the while harboring a secret: her aptitude test revealed her to be “divergent”, a freakish original thinker, fated to be hunted and killed if she is ever found out. Quite why she faces this drastic a penalty is hard to fathom, given that the rest of Roth’s future society seems wholly bent to the task of identifying and nurturing the skillsets of its teenagers. Roth has filled out her world without thinking it through as a dramatic space. “They built fences for a reason,” Beatrice is told, which in any other story would be a prelude to monsters, but no more is heard of it.

Instead, the bulk of this 160-minute film is taken up with an endless slog of evaluations and physical aptitude tests in smoky, diffusely lit interiors that resemble a Bill Fitzgibbons art installation . Director Neil Burger amps up every snap, crackle and pop, but there’s no escaping the fact: what we have is science fiction that devotes its considerable resources to imagining the future of SAT tests. Maybe that’s why Winston Smith went awol: a droopy grade point average.

The centrepiece of these is The Matrix -style virtual reality immersion designed to “explore your worst fears,” administered by Beatrice’s instructor, Four (Theo James), a hunk who stares through his eyebrows without giving the impression of ever really seeing anyone. Her worst fears turns out to be a rather spiffy replay of Hitchcock’s The Birds, but bright spark that she is, she snaps out of it by muttering, “This isn’t real.” This causes Four to stare at his eyebrows with even greater intensity. “You can’t do that,” he fusses. “You have to pretend that it’s real.” And so she humors him.

If the aim is to dramatise the patience that smart children must martial to fake IQ tests that are dumber than they are, then point taken, but when are film-makers going to learn what a losing proposition virtual reality is at the movies? The movies are virtual reality enough, so the only possible development is for the images to prove less substantial than they already seem – the wrong direction, surely.

All of this is toughest on Shailene Woodley, a lovely performer with big, brown eyes that seem to drink in everything, and an edge of shyness that is never quite dispelled, not even by the kick-boxing scenes. “You’re not going to shoot me,” says her fratboy-ish nemesis, Miles Teller. “Why does everyone always say that?” she says, before shooting him. The plot wakes up in the last 20 minutes, though whether this is a touching recreation of the rhythms of adolescence or a python-like regurgitation of the book’s plotting is hard to say: mom ( Ashley Judd ) arrives with news of the revolutionary underground, swiftly followed by Kate Winslet , vowing bad things for mom. The same thing happened to the last Hunger Games movie , the first hour of which could easily have been removed without anyone noticing.

The filmmakers of these young adult novels would appear to be in something of a bind, with a loyal fanbase commanding fidelity to books whose plotting is not shaped for the screen. Spielberg had the right idea when he was in the frame to adapt the Harry Potter series: crunch the first two books into one, and break out of Hogwarts sooner, for a movie in which magic comes to muggle suburbia. Instead of which, it was back to bloody Hogwarts, in film after film. Don’t kids want to get out into the world these days? All their plots seem to be cuckoos, afraid or unwilling to leave the nest.

• Kate Winslet
• Science fiction and fantasy films

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Love Lies Bleeding Link to Love Lies Bleeding
• Problemista Link to Problemista
• Late Night with the Devil Link to Late Night with the Devil

New TV Tonight

• Mary & George: Season 1
• Star Trek: Discovery: Season 5
• Sugar: Season 1
• American Horror Story: Season 12
• Parish: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• Loot: Season 2
• Lopez vs Lopez: Season 2
• The Magic Prank Show With Justin Willman: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• A Gentleman in Moscow: Season 1
• We Were the Lucky Ones: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• The Gentlemen: Season 1
• Palm Royale: Season 1
• X-Men '97: Season 1
• Manhunt: Season 1
• Testament: The Story of Moses: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Steve! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces Link to Steve! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Best Movies of 2024: Best New Movies to Watch Now

Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Weekend Box Office Results: Godzilla x Kong Scores Monster Debut

The Rotten Tomatoes Channel: Watch on Samsung, Roku, And More

• Trending on RT
• Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
• 3 Body Problem
• Play Movie Trivia

The Divergent Series: Allegiant

2016, Sci-fi/Action, 2h 1m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Allegiant improves on previous entries in The Divergent Series on a few superficial levels, but they aren't enough to counteract a sense of growing boredom with a franchise that's gone on too long. Read critic reviews

You might also like

Where to watch the divergent series: allegiant.

Watch The Divergent Series: Allegiant with a subscription on Prime Video, rent on Vudu, or buy on Vudu, Apple TV.

Rate And Review

Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

Step 2 of 2

How did you buy your ticket?

Let's get your review verified..

AMCTheatres.com or AMC App New

Cinemark Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Regal Coming Soon

Theater box office or somewhere else

By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

The divergent series: allegiant videos, the divergent series: allegiant   photos.

Tris (Shailene Woodley) escapes with Four (Theo James) to journey beyond the wall that encloses Chicago. For the first time, they leave the only city and family they have ever known to find a peaceful solution. Once outside, they learn shocking new truths that render old discoveries meaningless. As the ruthless battle threatens humanity, Tris and Four quickly decide who to trust to survive. Tris must ultimately make difficult choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice and love.

Rating: PG-13 (Some Partial Nudity|Intense Violence and Action|Thematic Elements)

Genre: Sci-fi, Action, Adventure

Original Language: English

Director: Robert Schwentke

Producer: Douglas Wick , Lucy Fisher , Pouya Shahbazian

Writer: Noah Oppenheim , Adam Cooper , Bill Collage

Release Date (Theaters): Mar 18, 2016  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Jun 24, 2016

Box Office (Gross USA): $66.2M

Runtime: 2h 1m

Distributor: Lionsgate Films

Production Co: Red Wagon Entertainment

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos

View the collection: Divergent

Cast & Crew

Shailene Woodley

Naomi Watts

Octavia Spencer

Jeff Daniels

Zoë Kravitz

Ansel Elgort

Caleb Prior

Miles Teller

Keiynan Lonsdale

Daniel Dae Kim

Bill Skarsgård

Jonny Weston

Nadia Hilker

Ray Stevenson

Mekhi Phifer

Ashley Judd

Rebecca Pidgeon

Xander Berkeley

Robert Schwentke

Noah Oppenheim

Screenwriter

Adam Cooper

Bill Collage

Douglas Wick

Lucy Fisher

Pouya Shahbazian

Todd Lieberman

Executive Producer

David Hoberman

Barry H. Waldman

Neil Burger

Florian Ballhaus

Cinematographer

Stuart Levy

Film Editing

Joseph Trapanese

Original Music

Alec Hammond

Production Design

Supervising Art Direction

Scott Dougan

Art Director

Alex McCarroll

Kathy Lucas

Set Decoration

Marlene Stewart

Costume Design

News & Interviews for The Divergent Series: Allegiant

The Divergent Series Will End on TV, and More Movie News

How Family-Friendly is Ghostbusters ?

On DVD This Week: Green Room , The Divergent Series: Allegiant , and More

Critic Reviews for The Divergent Series: Allegiant

Audience reviews for the divergent series: allegiant.

The Divergent series is brought to a close with the suspenseful sci-fi thriller Allegiant. As Chicago breaks down into mob rule Tris and Four escape to the wasteland outside of the city and find a hi-tech community that's trying to rebuild society; but Four soon uncovers a dark side to what they're doing. Jeff Daniels joins the cast and delivers an incredibly strong performance. And the special effects are extraordinarily good, creating some really inventive future tech. However, the plot is rather thin and kind of skims over a number of the events from the book. Also, most of the characters are underdeveloped. Still, while it comes off as a bit rushed and formulaic, Allegiant is entertaining and action-packed.

Theo James is still dreamy yet deadly, Miles Teller is still inexplicably douchey, and Shailene Woodley is still running the gun show, but her steel-eyed resolve only lasts through the first half of the movie. The second half sees Tris as this brainwashed diplomat of sorts manipulated by the system, and she barely gets to emote or say anything or even look remotely cool piloting a stolen pod or not look like a total n00b while wielding new drone gadgetry. Methought the movie ended abruptly with a nonsensical cliffhanger, but come to find out, the Divergent series has jumped on the YA film franchise L-train of splitting the final book into two films, thus ensuring cashflow but also long, dragged out plot points.

While this is a slight improvement over the last film, it still doesn't have the originality of the first. This is the type of film series (and probably book series) that had a cool premise for the first installment but then just kept going after the steering wheel was ripped off. The story seems like it is going somewhere but no one (that hasn't read the books) knows, or as the box office indicates, really cares. Many "plot twists" you really could see coming from a mile away which made the viewing experience even worse. With as many special effects that they put into this one, in order to even break even on the next one, they are going to have to pull the CGI WAAAAY back.

Not bad (especially not as bad as they say), but at the same time not great. No earth-shattering surprises. An okay continuation of grabbing our money (especially by dividing a book into two movies when there was only enough story for one).

Movie & TV guides

Play Daily Tomato Movie Trivia

Discover What to Watch

Rotten Tomatoes Podcasts

• Anime/Manga
• Books/Comics
• Events/Conventions
• Kickstarter
• Products/Toys
• Science/Tech
• Theme Parks
• Anime/Manga News
• Art/Music News
• Books/Comics News
• Events/Convention News
• Gaming News
• Movies/TV News
• Podcast News
• Products/Toys News
• Science/Tech News
• Theme Park News
• Anime/Manga Reviews
• Art/Music Reviews
• Books/Comics Reviews
• Events/Convention Reviews
• Gaming Reviews
• Movies/TV Reviews
• Products/Toys Reviews
• Science/Tech Reviews
• Theme Park Reviews
• Do It Yourself
• Featured Creator
• NegativSteve
• The 3 Drunk Geeks
• The Mega Men Podcast
• We Are Nerds Podcast
• Privacy Policy

Phoenix Film Festival 2024 | Flex Passes Giveaway

Furiosa: a mad max saga | official trailer #2, the acolyte | official trailer, giveaway | get free passes to see ghostbusters: frozen empire, godzilla x kong: the new empire review | great titans, bad…, ghostbusters: frozen empire review | an empty shell, review: x-men ’97 | the x-men are back, “kung fu panda 4” review | a passing of the torch, ‘yu yu hakusho’ fans get a thrilling first look at live-action…, furiosa: a mad max saga | official trailer, have mercy an interview with avera cosplay, semi-snarky interview with snarky jay cosplay, dead moon rising: an interview with author peter clines, anime expo 2019 | photo gallery, chatting with ‘the peripheral’ stars gary carr & charlotte riley, the nacelle company: becoming a pop culture juggernaut, milana vayntrub in new scripted podcast series ‘marvel’s squirrel girl: the…, “divergent” movie review.

What is your faction? That is the question being asked in Summit Entertainments new dystopian action film Divergent. Based of the best-selling book series by Veronica Roth, and staring Shailene Woodley and Theo James, Divergent is set in a post war future Chicago the surviving society has been split into five groups, based on virtues, known as factions. Each individual is expected to adhere to the rules and tenets of only one single faction. This system is said to be necessary to achieve the continued success of the Utopian like society, yet the differences and segregation of the factions can often cause tension between factions and tear families apart.

This happens to be the case for young Beatrice (Tris) Prior (Woodley) who although born in the peace-loving faction Abnegation has never truly felt it is truly where she belonged. In her sixteenth year she and her brother undergo a right of passage where it is quickly discovered that Tris isn’t all she seems, in fact, she does not fit into only a single faction but has traits from all factions making her Divergent. Left without guidance on which faction to chose Tris decides to follow her heart and leave her family and faction for the thrill-seeking guardian faction Dauntless. She quickly discovers that not only is she over her head but a shake up in the faction system may lead to a new world order one that doesn’t take to kindly to Divergents.

The film reads as the hybrid love child of The Giver and The Hunger Games, featuring a lead character forced to rebel against their societies morally bankrupt oppression established to “keep peace” within a post war future, and although driven by subtext Divergent never really seems to make as deep or impactful a statement as other works within the genre.

That is not to say that Divergent is without merit. Divergent manages to set itself apart through strong interesting protagonists, especially the character of Four, as portrayed by Theo James, whose layered and nuanced performance gives the character much more meat and substance than most of the male heart-throbs of the genre.

The film does manage to walk the tightrope (literally in one scene) between action and exposition without suffering too much for it, keeping the plot interesting and audience invested. Kate Winslet’s performance is lacking, yet the one dimensionality of her antagonist character of Jeanine seems most at fault and it is not distracting enough to take away from the story.

Still despite a mostly solid execution as the credits rolled I was taken aback. There was a small nagging voice inside my head, which told me that something was missing. Only after a little reflection did I come to understand what it was. Tris represented everything that I loved in a female action hero; she was strong, caring, self-sacrificing, and operated with a strong moral center. She overcame her limitations and obstacles through strength of will and character and never at the expense of others. She was smart and brave and everything that could be hoped for in a young female character. So, why wasn’t I satisfied? Then it dawned on me, I found that Tris simply lacked something and I was concerned. In fact, this was very difficult for me to reconcile as I had found Woodley’s performance charming and understated and truly liked Tris. I soon realized that Tris broke from the teen badass mold in one very significant way – she lacked angst.

For Tris there were no quips and quotes, no teen related baggage, nor the ‘does he love me mind games’ associated with the YA dystopian genre. Instead, what was presented on the screen was a realistic, well-rounded representation of a teen growing and finding her place in the world and coming into her own. Something that has become so rare on-screen that I almost didn’t recognize the beauty of this and nearly missed its significance by dismissing the character for not fitting the archetype which I had been beaten over the head with for the last twenty or so years. It is this and only this, which in my opinion allows this film to float to the top of the genre pile.

In the end Divergent reads as more of the same and although it should greatly please fans of the books it might not hit hard for the new audience. If you are a fan of the genre and are looking for something to watch in between Hunger Game movies Divergent is still solid entertainment and well worth your time.

Rating: 8 out of 11

Synopsis: In a future world where people are divided into distinct factions based on their personalities, Tris Prior is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late. Based on the worldwide bestselling novel by Veronica Roth, DIVERGENT is directed by Neil Burger, with a screenplay by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor. DIVERGENT arrives in theaters & IMAX nationwide March 21, 2014.

Company: Summit Entertainment, Red Wagon Entertainment

Director: Neil Burger

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Ray Stevenson, Maggie Q, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort

Official Site:  http://DivergentTheMovie.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ Divergent

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ Divergent

Instagram:  http://instagram. com/Divergent

Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/ Divergent/

Google+:  https://google.com/+ Divergent  

[SlideDeck2 id=9269]

Danie Hermes

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

Godzilla x kong: the new empire review | great titans, bad story.

Buy our team a coffee!

Latest articles, godzilla x kong: the new empire review | great titans, bad....

• Contributors
• Opt-out preferences