Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Odeya Rush, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Cameron Monaghan, Taylor Swift
Directed By: Phillip Noyce
Well, I now like Divergent a little less after realizing that it mirrors a lot of The Giver. That whole ceremony where people find out their job for the rest of their lives? Yeah, that started in The Giver. It was like watching a knockoff of Divergent, but knowing that the knockoff had actually been around longer.
That being said, I liked Divergent more as a movie. The Giver is incredibly slow, and overly dramatic. It’s very dramatic, and takes itself super seriously, but it never really needed to. I gotta say Katie Holmes feels out of place as the parent of an 18 year old. She still looks like she’s in her 20’s herself. I realize she’s actually 36, but that would mean her character was 18 when she had a baby, which does not seem to be the path for the 18 year olds in the movie. So are they expecting Katie Holmes to play OLDER than she is? Because she doesn’t even look 36, let alone 38 or 40.
Brenton is good as the lead character, but this role does nothing for Streep or Bridges. Playing a role that essentially lacks emotion seems like a walk in the park for Streep. Bridges is good at being mumbly. Oh, and I’m sure people will mock Taylor Swift, but she does a good job in the 2 minutes of screentime she has.
It’s a pretty film though. And it’s not terrible, it’s just not much better than average. Wait for DVD though.
FINAL GRADE: C+