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[Super Wabbit]

I hope it's not just nostalgia, but I don't remember big budget movies from a few years ago being this bad? I guess Divergent isn't bad, but it is sure not up to the level of a blockbuster. It seems to be hyped as the next Hunger Games, but the story, writing and acting are quite there. I feel like plots are too contrived these days. Scene after scene of Divergent does little to further the plot or characters. Take the zipline initiation scene. WTF was the point of this scene? The scene simply comes off like she's a fucking idiot for not having the brake ready. It doesn't even show here coming close to getting hurt. WTF? Backing up, the little field exercise doesn't really show how she is any better than the other students.

Also, head instructor dude is a douche. He's not even a good instructor. I get the feeling they are trying to make the training be like that of a Navy SEAL but it comes off as half-assed.

Good movies exist, Gravity, Lone Survivor, and Interstellar come to mind. Hell, Act of Valor is better than any of this year's "Blockbusters" and it didn't even have actors!

Movies should be about story telling. Take a look at these two videos that basically "fix" everything wrong with Episodes I and II. He fixes them simply through good story telling: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9DkFIdboN3zZria_tnh3Z63LeiZmuC5g

These are the type of movies I want to watch.

I'm reminded how Captain America: Winter Soldier was pretty damn good, right up until bird-man-dude showed up. It felt like the movie was obliged to add this set of flying wings, as if they were throwing some hardcore fans some type of bone with the original comic. No, this was simply porn for those hardcore fans. Throwing in a last minute bit of technology that then plays a crucial roll in the successful outcome of a movie is dumb. There is a term for this: Deus ex machina (Latin term, literally meaning "God from the machine" and used to indicate "a person or event which provides a sudden, unexpected solution to a story"). To me, there is no quicker way of spoiling a movie.

Stop showing me shit that does not advance the story. If you're doing it just to look cool, well looking cool must be an important part of the movie. It must feed into the theme of the movie.

Finally, let's talk about love. Stop it. These are not love stories. There is no place for it. Stop it. Too often these situations feel forced and contrived. I really don't see how Four falls in love with Tris in this movie. I'm just not feeling it. What is the point? We don't need a love story in our films unless the damn film is about a love story.

It's bad when watching a film adds nothing to the experience versus reading the plot summary on Wikipedia.

Taken, now that was a great movie. Simple plot, no love story and shows that the smart application of violence solves every situation. Something Divergent could have used. Just shoot the bad guys, you've got guns! Taken has no plot twists or hidden stories, just a guy with a very particular set of skills being awesome.

Back to Divergent, yeah, her mom just got shot. Didn't see that coming. Why didn't the bad guys close in on her position while she was screaming for her mother? You didn't even trust your mother for half the movie, why so now? Move on. The world is shit, man up and start cappin' the bad guys. We ain't got time to cry! We'll cry at the after party.

A little over dramatic for jumping off of a train that is moving at 5mph...."You're not going to like it!" Yeah, that was the most weak ass jump out of train I've seen. Now they're in Dauntless. Well that was fucking easy. There was one novice guard. Super secure! Well it better be that easy to break into because all we have are these two old dues with no military training, some random young kid that I guess we met earlier in the movie and the most junior member of Dauntless. Oh, her dad just died in a seemingly useless assault on some guards. Did that really need to happen? It's like the writers needed her parents to be killed to further Tris' character (some how) but then couldn't come up with a good way of doing it. Lazy ass writers (good performance by the actors though).

And now, all of a sudden, Tris seems to be a badass hand to hand fighter when we never saw her get to this level.

Ah the great Suicide play. Gets them every time!

Ah, so the love story was there to make this one scene powerful enough to stop Four from killing Tris. So this whole movie hinges on that love between the two characters. Too bad that love story isn't all that powerful.

Alright, well the entire Dauntless drones now have mass PTSD. Hope you don't need an army any time soon.

There is always a convenient train to jump out of or onto in this movie...convenient!

"Hold be Four, my mother died because I couldn't run to cover fast enough and my father died because Plot." "Who am I know?"

And this a new movie franchise?

I get the feeling that some old movie exec saw the success of Hunger Games and thought, "we need a version of that for our studio!" Go get an original though and stop this BS. Stop making money the driving factor of these movies. Make a great movie and you will make a fuck ton of money. Chris Nolan's batman series did just that! It was a blockbuster movie, big name actors, Trilogy. The story was the driving cause of those movies existence, not a paycheck. Come to think of it, Inception was pretty damn good (no love story).

Of dear god, the end credits music...so teen angst.


Okay, Divergent is over, oh dear god, The Patriot is now on. Yeah, let's take an otherwise historically accurate movie and make it's central unifying symbol a flag (Murica!) that did not exist then! Also, men of this time still considered themselves British. The idea of being an American hasn't happened yet. Hell, that probably doesn't happen until 1945! But Murica!

[MTLMortis]

Why do you hate Christmas?
_________________
[MTL]Mortis - "No one says you have to fight a war with your pants on..."

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[JoeSwindell]

^

mortis wins.

[Super Wabbit]

Wait, Divergent is a Christmas movie? Well then, that changes everything.