To all of you who have seen the 1st and 2nd part of the "Divergent" movies adapted from the young adult novels written by Veronica Roth, should be able to immediately understand the story from the beginning. I, on the other hand thought that I am one of those people, but unfortunately I got mixed up with another young adult novel adaptation - The Maze Runner. D-oh.
Anyway, this movie starts from the moment that factions system no longer exist in Chicago and was being led now by Evelyn (played by Naomi Watts) where she hold trials for the people who earlier supported Jeanine (played by Kate Winslet in the previous 2 movies). She would leave the decision to the people of Chicago what they would do to them. Most of them insisted that those people should be executed and Evelyn duly complied despite the strong protest from Johana (played by Octavia Spencer) who was previously the leader of Amity faction.
Caleb (played by Ansel Elgort), request the help from his sister Tris (played by Shailene Woodley) as he would be the next on trial on the following day. However, Tris seem to be more interested in her relationship with her boyfriend Four (played by Theo James). They were discussing about what lies outside the walls of Chicago that have been closed by Evelyn to hold the people from leaving the city. With Caleb almost got executed, he managed to get out of Chicago with the help of none other than his sister Tris assisted by Four, Christina (played by Zoë Kravitz) and also joined by Peter (played by Miles Teller) and Tori (Maggie Q).
After heavy chase from Evelyn's thug - Matthew, Tris and the others managed to escape from the city's wall. While they were almost caught by Matthew, the "outside" people who earlier sent a message to Chicago about the better world, helped the gang and brought them to this great city which was very clean with no faction. Apparently Tris and Four were considered like legend by those people.
Tris was the only one from Chicago with the perfect successful sample of DNA and Faction experiment done by the David the Director - played by Jeff Daniels (A real surprise for me as my image was very different since he played in Dumb and Dumber movies with Jim Carrey). Tris was described as the "Pure" by David and was asked to give her "perfect" DNA so David can create similar DNA for other people and convince the council that this was the best solution for the chaos outside their perfect cities.
Meanwhile, Four as the "Damaged" people as described by David was given training to be 1 of the soldier with special purpose of saving children from the hardship of living in the world damaged by civil wars. Christina being a Dauntless faction warrior also assigned to be 1 of those soldiers. Peter and Caleb were given the task to watch over the city of Chicago through a sophisticated equipment. Peter was unhappy with such assignment but Caleb was very happy with this task.
Four felt his relationship with Tris grew apart because of the grouping by David. He also later found out from Caleb that Chicago was on a brink of civil war between Evelyn and Johana. Four wanted to take a direct approach by going back to Chicago to stop the war, but Tris was more interested in convincing the council to intervene the problem in Chicago.
So can Four convince his mother Evelyn to stop the civil war? Was Tris going to go and convince the council with the help of David or would she follow Four's method? Can Chicago be saved? Find out till the end of this movie. Just remember that this is 1st part of the finale. So there will be 2nd part to complete the novels trilogy.
For 2 hours, I tried to enjoy the movie. It was however, not as good as Insurgent (the 2nd part) and it's way below the 1st part. I felt the pace was too slow. Most likely it was due to the movie made in two films rather than one. I guess it's like a trend nowadays that the final series of books adaption should always be made in 2 parts (The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, Twilight). Despite the above, the movie did have its moments. There were some surprising twists and humor here and there. While the action was not spectacular but I think the special effects were quite good as the great cities, the aircrafts and the weapons used by Four actually looked real and cool.
So if you already watched 1st and 2nd part, I guess you are screwed and had no choice but to watch this one to complete the trilogy. Of course if you don't really give a d*mn, you can always leave this one out.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
