ah…remember the film is the first of a trilogy…all questions will be answered.
Huh… has the Matrix trilogy been the only recent sci-fi film series that depicts a future human population that is significantly (possibly majority) nonwhite?
I didn’t hate the movie it was just kind of there. Not boring but not interesting either. The moment I heard the narrator talking about how the populace was separated into factions to keep the peace I decided it was worthless and checked out mentally.
The best part of the night was getting my daughter to try lamb curry.
This premiered on cable last night and I slogged through it, though not without effort. By far the least credible world building I’ve seen in a movie. Nothing was designed with an eye toward a workable, functional society, but instead everything seemed catered to offer profound-seeming life choices for a tween girl.
I’ve enjoyed a fair amount of YA movies, but this one really puts the Y in YA. Horrible, unwatchable drek.
I just watched Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, and I was impressed with the number of non-white actors there were. I liked seeing the guy from The House of Cards, and seeing Evan Ross (Diana Ross’s son) in the propo film crew was also kind of a treat. It seemed to me that District 8 had a whole slew of people of color. (And of course, so did District 11 where Rue hailed from.)
The hilarious trainwreck known as “Snowpiercer” also didn’t skimp on non-white actors. Though–with the probably exception of the sushi chef–all of 'em seemed to be in the back of the train.
Bladerunner had a realistic feel in that the Los Angeles location had a lot of Asian-heritage residents. (Not that Ridley Scott has been a real exemplar for diversity, other than that. He’s sort of notorious for his ‘one black guy’ SF-flick casting: for example, Yaphet Kotto in Alien and Idris Elba in Prometheus.)
My guess is that the filmmakers are courting the audience of “One Direction”-loving teen white girls (in English-speaking nations) with a mostly-white film that will make them feel comfortable. It’s possible that they have filmed duplicate scenes with extras that are more diverse, to sub in for those versions of the movie that will be exhibited overseas.
None of these franchises (Hunger Games, Divergent, The Mortal Instruments, etc.) are designed to depict plausible future worlds. They’re all about dramatizing the Teen Experience: *everybody is against me! (especially the older generation!) that cute guy/girl thinks I’m a loser! I’ve got to prove I’m not! I’ve got to win my freedom and autonomy from this absurdly-unjust dictatorship that is oppressing me! *… etc., etc.
The authors can get pretty cynical in constructing these reified inner dramas.
Agreed. I guess what I’m saying is that Divergent took the silliness to a whole new level. Of course the Hunger Games depicts an unworkable societal structure, but if you squint you can kind of sort of see how something maybe a little similar could possibly work. In Divergent, there isn’t a single aspect of the society that isn’t monumentally stupid.
I agree, Ellis Dee. (A poem!)
It’s difficult to point to a single incident or situation in the story that is rooted in genuine, observable human psychology.
I caught this on a plane earlier year and even though I turned it on with low expectations, it still managed to disappoint. I’m not one to pick apart the premise of a movie, (because it’s just a movie after all), but the plodding pace and clichéd dialogue, (Come with me if you want to live!), had me squirming in my seat. I can understand someone who has read the books wanting to watch this, but you’re not a YA and like a little more substance with your Dystopian fantasies, don’t bother, IMHO.
The only thing divergent about this movie was its plot and my suspension of belief.
The problem with the movie is terrible pacing! Some of the worst I’ve ever seen, the movie is overly long and just drags for the first 75% with nothing much happening, lack of much of a plot until the last part when we finally get some idea of what is going on and the conflict of the story.
And by the time we get to the actual plot it ends with basically nothing resolved, I was like huh? I went into this not knowing it was based on a book or that it is apparently intended as the first part of a trilogy.:rolleyes:
The whole movie feels like the overly long in badly need of editing set up to a movie, which is ridiculous. Or at least it would have been nice to warn the audience this is part 1 and don’t expect much of anything to be explained or resolved.
This movie needed an editor and a script rewrite to make it feel satisfying.
Nice.
I don’t get what the deal was with the factionless. Aren’t they basically being forced into lives of crime to survive? Simply ignoring them won’t eliminate their need for food, and their numbers are such that they could organize and pose a genuine threat.
It has a very high-school feel to it: five cliques, and any nonmembers are basically nonpeople.
That’s more or less the way it struck me, too. I mean, the whole premise of Divergent is basically that you have to Choose Who You Want To Be, and that if you Dare To Be Different, then there will be trouble. Those are of course major themes in other similar films, but in this one, there just didn’t really seem to be anything there besides—just a world that’s composed of factions that are, basically, high school stereotypes; indeed, basically the whole world was highschool blown up, with what lies beneath the wall standing in for all the unknowns beyond graduating, in ‘the real world’, or whatnot. And of course, worse than anything else, the threat of becoming factionless, of not belonging, of sticking out, etc.
Dauntless’s training process struck me as especially weird. So they eliminate something like 75% of their recruits, leaving them factionless? Doesn’t that suggest the factionless will eventually be majority Dauntless rejects, which means they’ll be full of undirected energy and aggression?
Agreed. This was created to appeal to tween girls. Over simplifying the world is the best way to emphasize the one or two moral lessons that the book was written to teach. Anything not “on point” is not important. So trying to watch this or Mazerunner or Hunger Games as strong world building or "discussion of the future"movies will always leave us disappointed.