Divergent

Divergent is many things. "Entertaining" is not one of them.

Divergent, based on the first novel in the young adult series, is an action-adventure film set in a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues.

For most of the film Shailene Woodley, a talented standout in The Descendants and The Spectacular Now, plays the main character Beatrice (Tris) as a quiet, contemplative girl who has to choose her faction and then compete to stay in it. Whether she’s in a dream sequence (yawn), an action sequence (just OK) or just staring at the ground (she’s as bored as I), I kept wondering exactly what Tris is thinking about.

There are a lot of storytelling problems with this movie and it just seems to be going through the motions.

As far as the stars: Shailene Woodley gets a pass, my fave Kate Winslet needs to return her Oscar for overacting and Theo James might just be a new star if he can remove his unintentionally funny tattoo — and remove himself from this 3-movie mess.

Simply put: The book has a lot of intriguing thoughts and suspense, but unless the heroine is thinking about these things, I couldn’t find them in the movie.

Award potential: None.

The ten buck review: Not worth ten bucks.