Dissimilar/Similar

Divergent had a series of bad trailers and topped with a superbly hideous fake-looking poster. I have loved Shailene Woodley since The Descendants. I was also one of the few people who embraced the idea of her being the new Mary Jane Watson. I fell in love with her all over again in The Spectacular Now too. But even she couldn't make me anticipate this film. The premise was over-convoluted, and too YA. The supporting cast of the film was quite nice, it has Miles Teller, Jai Courtney and Kate Winslet. Still, no interest in seeing this film. But until yesterday, I decided to give the film a go.

The story is set in a dystopian (duh bored writing this word already) future where the people are divided into five factions. Our heroine is Tris Prior (Shailene--yep first name basis here), who's so badass and cool that she cannot be classified into only one faction. They call people like her Divergent and it's dangerous to the existing system. She picked Dauntless, the rebel-like-but-not-rebels guard of the city. As she tries to survive each day in the dauntless Dauntless, she also discovered a secret plan to overthrow the existing governmental system.

The film worked so well. I loved the whole film despite its flaws. I loved seeing Shailene Woodley walking around carrying a big gun. So cool. So sexy. Anyway, she's the star of the film. Even the likes of Kate Winslet looks dumb besides her. The story is only roughly explained that average, non-book-fan wouldn't understand what actually is happening. Theo James as Four is super stiff that it's actually funny. Miles Teller and Ansel Englort should've had more scenes but maybe they're trying to save it for the next movie (or not). It's a pity that Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn only got very few scenes in this film. Also the film chose to end it safely, in case this film flops there's no urgency to make the sequel. The film is definitely in the leagues of The Hunger Games and Ender's Game because it's well made. The action scenes are great and most of all I can actually relate to some parts of the story. Still, some parts of the film is like a rehash of other YA novels: the dystopian future, the love story, the evil government. What I don't like is Junkie XL's incredibly similar to 300: Rise of an Empire score. I guess Junkie XL attended Hans Zimmer's school of mediocrity. All in all, I would love to see the stuff explained more and of course more Shailene Woodley. It's also funny to note that the three main young boys are, were and will be Shailene's love interest in other films (Teller in Spectacular Now, James in Divergent, Englort in The Fault in Our Stars). Divergent: rated 3.5/4

BONUS

Downton tenants! Your favorite Turkish has gone a long way since dying in Lady Mary's bed after one session of lustful sex. Behold, Kemal Pamuk is actually Four in Divergent. How bout changing your name to One, as in one fear of dying after coitus?