By Rick Bentley

 

FILM: Divergent

CAST: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Kate Winslet

DIRECTION: Neil Burger

 

Divergent is the latest in a string of movies based on a popular young adult novel — a fact that works against the film.

Based on the book by Veronica Roth, Divergent tells the story of Tris (Shailene Woodley), a young woman who resists society’s attempt to pigeonhole her into one of five factions. There’s a real Hunger Games tone to the way the world has been divided into distinct groups. And, once again, it’s those in power who bring chaos to this existence.

The decision by Tris to join the military-oriented Dauntless faction puts her into a long (really long) training cycle that has the same slow pacing as Ender’s Game. In both films, the central hero is an unlikely candidate who rises to the challenge when their existence is threatened.

Helping Tris through her training is the dark and broody Four (Theo James) whose worldly ways as a protector give the movie a Twilight touch. It all takes place in a world that looks a lot like the sanctuary in Warm Bodies.

One of the biggest issues with Divergent is it’s easy to get lost if you haven’t read the book. There’s little explanation of Tris’ world. What is known is that events unfold in the near future after a terrible war. The enemy is not clear. There are five factions, but no answer as to why there is not a sixth devoted to artists or something else. There’s a major threat outside the city walls, but no reasoning on why that’s where all of the crops are planted. And at least one major character gets in harm’s way with little reason.

Similarities to other movies and big questions about the story pile up so high the only thing that can save the film is the chemistry between the main characters. Woodley turns in a solid performance as the young woman facing major changes in her life. And James is a dashing guardian to his young charge (maybe a tiny bit too young for him). There just aren’t any sparks when they get together.

Equally disconnected is Tris and the members of her family. A big part of this story has to do with family, but the bond between Tris and her brother, mother and father is weak. And Kate Winslet doesn’t bring enough sinister to her role to make her the strong central villain this movie needed.

Maggie Q plays the most interesting character in the movie — a tattoo artist who has a secret — but her screen time wouldn’t fill a TV commercial. Director Neil Burger spends so much time on the training sessions, there’s little left — even at two hours, 23 minutes — to properly develop all of the characters.

Divergent looks at a world filled with five factions — Abnegation, Amity, Candour, Dauntless and Erudite. For this review, Candor seems the best way to go: Honestly, this is a film that will please fans of the books. It’s not bad, but it feels too familiar and lacks the on-screen chemistry for it to win over non-fans. — The Fresno Bee/MCT

 

Blood and brawls

 

 

 

FILM: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

CAST: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Sally Field, Paul Giamatti

DIRECTION: Marc Webb

 

I

f there’s a tie that binds most of the characters of the Marvel Universe together, it’s the mutability of the supposedly immutable human body. Characters are poisoned by radiation, zapped by electricity, bitten by spiders or broken, crushed, ruined or whatever.

And as Spider-Man cracks in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, just “shake it off. It’s just your bones, muscles...”

But the real world doesn’t work like that. That’s one reason this comic book world has such a lasting appeal. Bullies are foiled, criminals are caught and great wrongs righted with supernatural intervention by supernaturally augmented humans.

Amazing 2 is kind of about that. It’s a violent film, with blood and death in between the digitally-animated brawls. Human bodies are tortured and broken, and there’s not always a web slinger there to stop that flipping police car, that hurtling bus, that Russian psychopath or that jet that’s about to crash.

It’s not an altogether pleasant experience. Things tend to drag as director Marc Webb has problems with focus, keeping the many story threads straight and continuity (watch Gwen Stacy’s outfits). Many otherwise faceless extras pop off the screen as if he’s about to give their nameless characters the same significance as Stan Lee himself — who always has cameos in these Marvels.

But Andrew Garfield finds his voice as the character, making his second try at Peter Parker a caffeinated wise-cracker, enjoying his notoriety, talking to himself just like the guy in the comic book. He’s funny.

Clueless Aunt May (Sally Field) wonders why he has soot all over his face.

“I was ... cleaning the chimney!”

“We have no chimney!”

Peter hums Spider-Man’s theme song and hurls himself into situations with a teen’s recklessness. He almost misses his and Gwen’s (Emma Stone) high school graduation, dealing with a villain named Aleksei (Paul Giamatti).

But even though he doesn’t carry the angst of Tobey Maguire’s Spidey, Peter has problems. He sees Gwen’s late dad (Denis Leary) everywhere he looks, and remembers his promise to the dead cop to distance himself from his daughter, due to the danger.

Peter hasn’t seen the opening scene in the movie, in which we flash back to Peter’s parents’ (Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz) grisly deaths. And Peter has no idea that his great chemistry with long lost rich-kid pal Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) will go nowhere, because some of us remember 2002’s Spider-Man and how Harry turns out.

Jamie Foxx is an ignored, humiliated electrical engineer who has an accident involving electric eels and power lines. That transforms him from a Spider-Man fanboy into a glowing blue guy in a hoodie. In the ethos of this movie, Peter/Spidey reasons with the tormented villains, trying to connect with the doomed rich kid (Osborn) or this “nobody” engineer.

“You’re not a nobody, you’re SOMEbody!”

Except for Giamatti’s Russian. He’s just ... bad. While Garfield and Stone have a nice sass to their scenes, director Webb can do nothing to give this relationship the longing and heat of the Kirsten Dunst/Tobey Maguire moments from the earlier films.

And Webb’s team of screenwriters don’t find any pathos in all this computer-animated flying and fighting, not until the finale.

So while this Spider-Man is, if anything, more competent than the first film, it’s still not one that demands that you stick around after the credits. There’s nothing there. — MCT

A masterful performance

 

 

 

FILM: Locke

CAST: Tom Hardy, the voices of Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott

DIRECTION: Steven Knight

 

I

f the longest journey begins with a single footstep, then for Ivan Locke — on a tense nighttime drive from the north of England into London — it starts with a single phone call.

A film totally set within the confines of a moving car, Locke is claustrophobically gripping and an impressive showcase for British actor Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises). Its dialogue-heavy minimalism may drive some to distraction; movies about cars usually involve someone being chased, after all. But the only things chasing Locke are his emotional demons.

The film starts as Ivan gets into his BMW. We learn he’s a construction foreman on a huge project, one of the largest in Europe, which is breaking ground the next day. He’s supposed to be on his way home to watch a big soccer match with his two sons and wife.

But it’s another set of urgent calls that sends him into a tailspin while trying to pay attention to the road. (Warning: Those against the use of bluetooth-phone technology while driving may have issues with this movie.)

Hardy delivers a masterful performance, conveying shifting moods as well as his life story with just his face and voice. That’s no surprise as Hardy is one of this generation’s best actors and best-kept secrets. (That’s going to change in the next couple of years as he stars in the Elton John biopic Rocketman and the Mad Max reboot, Fury Road.)

But what is surprising is that filmmaker Steven Knight, whose previous directing credits include Jason Statham’s Redemption, delivers the stripped-down intensity generated by Locke.

Kudos to the actors on the other end of the line — especially Ruth Wilson as Locke’s wife — whom are heard but never seen. As with a good radio play, they have to tell the story and maintain interest with just their voices.

Of course, the idea of setting a film around a person trapped in a confined space (Buried) or open space (Gravity) can seem like a gimmick. But when it’s done well, as it is here, it’s something else: a cinematic joyride. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT

 

DVDs courtesy:

Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha