Divergent

If Starship Troopers had been meant seriously, it would have looked like Burger’s sunny dystopia. The central idea of Divergent is likable, and if I were a teenager dealing with the feeling that nobody understands me and I don’t belong anywhere, I wouldn’t have a problem seeing myself in the story. The subject skilfully uses the mental processes of adolescents who feel pushed by society into narrowly defined pigeonholes. Unlike in the real world, failing the test of adulthood here is not a cause for despair, but rather an opportunity to step off the path laid out by parents and to follow one’s heart. ___ But what does Tris accomplish by running away from her assigned role? Violence becomes her main form of self-expression, which remains unquestioned by the narrative. She earns respect through risky behaviour and toughness, not through composure or ingenuity. Though she voluntarily chose her faction, she can’t be herself, as she has to dissemble in front of the others in order to convince them that she belongs among them (she will then have to undergo a great test of dissembling in the Resistance). The militarisation of youth is not coded negatively, but is only abused by another faction, fittingly the Erudite. Weapons are superior to books in the film’s value ranking, which could be understood as a warning about the radicalisation of not only American society – if there was any irony or distance from the characters in the film. ___ The film equivocates with respect to who or what poses a threat, who or what the Dauntless are supposed to protect the city from. There is no ongoing war that has to be stopped. The necessity of a strong defence comes across as a paranoid ideological construct from the Cold War era. ___ The greatest paradox consists in the fact that Tris’s betrayal of her parents’ trust leads back to where the film began. Her rebellion doesn’t lead to revolution, but to the need to restore the previous order. The concept of social engineering, which displaces human nature in favour of a predictable and thus more easily manipulated society, is not questioned. Only individuals like Jeanine are corrupt. The old (parental) system is automatically understood as being correct, which is how Divergent inadvertently “holds up a mirror” to teenagers dreaming in the virtual space that they will go against the tide, while in reality they are terrified of losing their current certainties and accept the status quo as the truth. ___ The concept of life as a video game is contained at least in the choice of factions (as in an RPG), the inclusion of the popular CTF game mode and in the fact that most of the film comprises training with minor skirmishes rather than vigorous action with serious conflicts (which is largely true of the Resistance, where only tranquiliser bullets are used instead of lethal ammunition and where the most spectacular action scenes take place only in the protagonist’s mind). Whereas in her dreams the protagonist is able to withstand all of the elements (earth, birds, fire, water and – the biggest threat to every untarnished girl – a man), when the harmless pseudo-rebel training ends, Tris has to be rescued by her mother – the girl can’t cope on her own in the real world (for a change, she is repeatedly rescued by her male partners in the Resistance). ___ Besides the fact that the film version of the bestselling book gives the impression of being just as confused as a person facing the problems of adulthood for the first time, it essentially fails in dramaturgical terms. The story is slow for 140 minutes. The characters take either needlessly complex detours or unconvincing shortcuts in the pursuit of their objectives. For more than half of the film, the suspense stems only from the anticipation of when Tris’s inability to assimilate will be revealed – there is no more serious conflict in sight. The literalness of the screenplay is apparent from the bookish exposition, which uninventively lets the characters say who they are, what they feel, what they want to do and why. The whole film takes place in a strangely sedated and very inconsistently thought-out world. Add to that bad CGI and another negative character of a powerful woman (as in Elysium, The Hunger Games and Snowpiercer), which darkly stigmatises women’s efforts to get into leadership positions. Thematically, this would need a dystopia for adolescents that is itself adult and does not discourage growing up. Stylistically, something at least suggestively revolutionary. 50% (2015-03-21) (less) (more)