Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2014

In yet another dystopian future, society is divided into five innate “types.” And if you happen, during kind of a Harry Potter Sorting Hat ceremony, to fit more than one category, you are a “Divergent” and hunted down. Can’t see anything going wrong with that. As cynical, opportunistic, exposition-heavy, overlong and repetitive attempts at grabbing some of those YA, sci-fi-fantasy, Hunger Games bucks go, it’s not bad. What it lacks in originality, Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, The Spectacular Now) makes up for in pure watchability. Not terrible, just not memorable. Or much fun. Two more on the way. (140 min)