Post by ck100 on Mar 23, 2024 6:45:19 GMT
This feels like a movie franchise that nobody necessarily wanted, but we got it anyway more so due to the success of youth-appealing franchises like "Harry Potter", "Twilight", and "The Hunger Games" than on its own terms. The first few movies did decent enough critically/commercially, but by the third film, the franchise ran out of gas and it didn't do well enough to go on to make the fourth which would have finished it (splitting the third into two parts probably wasn't the best idea). It seems though that despite not standing out from other youth-appealing franchises, this movie still has decent action and performances (with Shailene Woodley being the standout).
Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Review:
Divergent (2014) - 2.5 out of 4 stars
"In the near future (when else?), after a devastating war, Chicago has become a walled city, its surviving population divided into five groups or factions. Tris (Woodley) has been raised in the Abnegation sector but has always felt out of place. Upon coming of age, she chooses to join the law-enforcement group called Dauntless. She doesn't realize how brutal her indoctrination will be--or that she'll become attracted to one of her trainers (James). She's also at risk because she can't and won't conform, which puts her on a collision course with power-hungry leader Winslet. Engrossing-enough adaptation of Veronica Roth's best-selling novel (the first of a series), although these youth-empowerment stories set in a dystopian future, like THE HUNGER GAMES, are starting to blur. HD Widescreen."
Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Review:
Divergent (2014) - 2.5 out of 4 stars
"In the near future (when else?), after a devastating war, Chicago has become a walled city, its surviving population divided into five groups or factions. Tris (Woodley) has been raised in the Abnegation sector but has always felt out of place. Upon coming of age, she chooses to join the law-enforcement group called Dauntless. She doesn't realize how brutal her indoctrination will be--or that she'll become attracted to one of her trainers (James). She's also at risk because she can't and won't conform, which puts her on a collision course with power-hungry leader Winslet. Engrossing-enough adaptation of Veronica Roth's best-selling novel (the first of a series), although these youth-empowerment stories set in a dystopian future, like THE HUNGER GAMES, are starting to blur. HD Widescreen."
