Now here's the thing: I've read the book, which means I started the movie knowing what to expect. So the cheesy plot, the seemingly nonexistent background, everything was already inherent to Divergent in my mind. To me, it was simply part of the concept that the movie would develop, so I didn't find it so horrible. In fact, I even thought it was a good adaptation of the book, but then that could have been because I read it over a year (or maybe even a couple of years) ago. I can't say it was objectively good, though.
The romance was awful, there seemed to be no chemistry between the characters in question, they definitely would have been better off as friends. Time seemed to be off too. I mean, I knew quite some time was supposed to have passed between (SPOILER)the choosing ceremony and the final confrontation(/SPOILER), but the director didn't seem to be able to convey the passage of time properly, so hadn't I read the book, I think I'd probably have a sense of timelessness and would see it all as a bunch of things that happened somewhere at some point with some unknown amount of time separating them.
Not only weren't characters really unique or remarkable, but also the film lacked emotion and thrill. Most scenes that could have been intense seemed to be left unexplored in detriment of more fight scenes and, seeing as I'm not really a fan of action (or romance, for that matter), I didn't care much about all that violence.
Despite all that, I did enjoy myself while watching it. I don't know why. Maybe seeing images I'd only had in my mind be put into something real and concrete made it special to me, maybe I already knew how bad it could be, so whatever good thing came of it was surprising enough... In the end, I'd say this is a movie for you to watch when you don't have much to do and you just want to relax.
The romance was awful, there seemed to be no chemistry between the characters in question, they definitely would have been better off as friends. Time seemed to be off too. I mean, I knew quite some time was supposed to have passed between (SPOILER)the choosing ceremony and the final confrontation(/SPOILER), but the director didn't seem to be able to convey the passage of time properly, so hadn't I read the book, I think I'd probably have a sense of timelessness and would see it all as a bunch of things that happened somewhere at some point with some unknown amount of time separating them.
Not only weren't characters really unique or remarkable, but also the film lacked emotion and thrill. Most scenes that could have been intense seemed to be left unexplored in detriment of more fight scenes and, seeing as I'm not really a fan of action (or romance, for that matter), I didn't care much about all that violence.
Despite all that, I did enjoy myself while watching it. I don't know why. Maybe seeing images I'd only had in my mind be put into something real and concrete made it special to me, maybe I already knew how bad it could be, so whatever good thing came of it was surprising enough... In the end, I'd say this is a movie for you to watch when you don't have much to do and you just want to relax.