DIVERGENT. SON OF GOD. NON-STOP. A TRIPLE REVIEW

DIVERGENT/SON OF GOD/NON-STOP—TRIPLE REVIEW

I’ve been a little inconsistent reviewing movies lately, which is shame, because this winter/early spring has seen a lot more quality movies than last year (last year, if you remember, was populated mostly by lackluster attempts at recreating beloved fairy tales, like Jack the Giant Slayer and Oz The Great and Powerful). While none of these three movies absolutely knocked my socks off, they came close, and all deserve a mention as solid, engaging times at the movies.

DIVERGENT

Grade: B

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Jai Courtney, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller and Ashley Judd

Rated PG-13 for action and some strong, brutal violence, language, sensuality and some intense emotional content

First of all, for you extreme skeptics, it’s not an exact re-creation of The Hunger Games. Yeah, Divergent is also based on a recently-published Young Adult novel about a tough teenage girl, but this adaptation of Veronica Roth’s best-seller actually reminded me more of black-and-white dystopian sagas like The City of Ember and Ayn Rand’s “Anthem”. Here, post-apocalyptic Chicago thrives thanks to a system in which people are given homes, lifestyles and jobs based on their primary trait, be it Courage, Wisdom, Happiness, Honesty or Selflessness. Born into the plain, humble faction that values selflessness above all—called “Abnegation”—sixteen-year-old Beatrice (Shailene Woodley, of George Clooney’s The Descendants) is stuck with a serious dilemma after the psychological test that normally nudges teens in the right direction fails to give her any real guidance. Taking a chance, she joins Dauntless, the faction that values courage and trains relentlessly in order to serve as the city's military/police force. It proves a fierce, unforgiving new life, but Beatrice –who renames herself “Tris”—makes it, thanks in large part to tips from drill-instructor/potential love-interest Four (James Franco lookalike Theo James). But there’s trouble on the horizon—some of the city’s top minds are hatching a plan to wipe out the weakest faction by taking control of Dauntless, and only people like Tris stand in their way. Why? Because she’s not so easily categorized or controlled, which the city's greatest minds called "divergent".

I’ll start by saying Divergent is an overall better-made movie than the first Hunger Games, with spotless special effects and many impressive, streamlined visuals. I was also intrigued by the sub-Harry Potter idea of people being sorted by their primary traits. However, that overall concept is better than the story itself. After a solid beginning, the movie starts to lose steam. This is due largely to A) the second half’s increasing focus on Tris/Four’s boring burgeoning romance, and B) the fact that dystopian stories are getting so familiar—the third act always includes revolution and action. In fact, despite the breathless action of the movie’s last 30 minutes, Divergent starts to feel long and, dare I say it, too easy.

As for the cast, which includes a lot of familiar faces, there’s not a whole lot of juicy material to go around. Just for a fun comparison’s sake, I will say that Shailene Woodley is a more expressive and instantly-likeable actress than Jennifer Lawrence, even if she lacks J-Law’s attention-grabbing magnetism. Woodley’s performance isn’t overall as taxing as either of Lawrence’s Hunger Games go-rounds, but she has one moment of piercing, visceral emotion that actually tops anything J-Law has done onscreen. Woodley’s main co-star, relative newcomer Theo James, is not a moony-eyed wastrel like the main male characters in other YA sagas (like Twilight), but he's not super-charismatic, and he seriously looks so much like James Franco it’s distracting. Kate Winslet has a few solid moments as an icy government dame, and a small cluster of up-and-coming stars—Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller and Ansel Eglort (who will play Woodley's love interest in another upcoming YA adaptation called Fault in Our Stars)—stand out from the pack.

I think it’s worth a shot for anyone curious, though it’s not on the breathtaking level of The Hunger Games—certainly not the exquisite Catching Fire of this past November. They clearly pulled out all the stops to make a worthwhile adaptation, but, despite some very intriguing moments, I couldn’t help but feel it was more impressive as a product than as a quality movie. I do know a couple fans of the book who loved it, though.

SON OF GOD

Grade: B

Starring: Diogo Morgado as Jesus, Greg Hicks as Pontius Pilate, Darwin Shaw as Peter, Joe Wredden as Judas, Sebastian Knapp as John, Roma Downey as Mary, the mother of Jesus, Adrian Schiller as Caiaphas, the High Priest and Simon Kunz as Nicodemus

Rated PG-13 for thematic material including strong violence, bloody content and scenes of torture, and intense emotional content

I guess I got what I expected with Son of God. Despite my Christian faith, I had steered clear of this “Jesus movie” so far, for fears that it would seem rushed or overly-earnest in its execution. I mean, we have four full Gospels in the Bible that describe the life and teachings of Jesus—how effective could a two-hour movie be? Well, a team of four screenwriters, including director Christopher Spencer, made the right call, with only a brief Nativity prologue preceding the arrival of a grown Jesus in Galilee, where he meets Peter and begins gaining followers, preaching about God’s love and grace, and working miracles.

True, all of this has been done before. I've definitely been more impressed by this same material in other screen attempts, like the Robert Powell-starring Jesus of Nazareth mini-series from the ‘70s, which at least had four-plus hours to chronicle these events. The early scenes here, of Jesus healing a paralytic, feeding crowds of thousands, and speaking parables are a little too crisply-done, putting one in mind of a decent church backyard production. Jesus is at least appropriately depicted as very warm, approachable individual, and other central figures are given some engaging depth as well, including Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus’ strongest follower, Peter, and Jesus’ betrayer, Judas Iscariot. Son of God definitely feels long, and things don’t really pick up until Jesus and his disciples arrive in Jerusalem, where the Palm Sunday arrival, Last Supper, betrayal, trial, beating and crucifixion are all vividly and convincingly portrayed.

As a Christian, I give the filmmakers credit. Despite a slow build-up, the key scenes involving Jesus’ torture, His slow trek to Golgotha and His crucifixion are as riveting as they’re supposed to be, and nearly on-par in sheer piercing impact with Mel Gibson’s famously-bloody 2004 film The Passion of the Christ. (Give credit to the Son of God filmmakers, who push their PG-13 rating to the limit and drive home the point without the second-by-second, misery-inducing depiction that made up Gibson’s feature.) This film is, in many ways, not long enough, but it certainly made me want to read the Gospels again, to remind myself of all the details contained in the text about Jesus and His workings. Can I really ask more than that?

NON-STOP

Grade: B-

Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Scoot McNairy, Corey Stoll and Lupita Nyong’o

Rated PG-13 for intense action and violence, language and some disturbing images

Liam Neeson’s re-imagining as a gritty, grey-haired butt-kicker continues in Non-Stop, which pits Neeson, as an air marshal with a shady past, against an unknown nemesis who threatens to torment and then fatally end the flight on which our main character has sought travel. Though the flight begins pleasantly, with Neeson’s Bill Marks chatting lightly with the lady sitting next to him (Julianne Moore), things quickly go south when he gets a disturbing text message in which an unnamed someone threatens to kill a passenger every 30 minutes unless given a multi-million dollar payday. The flight’s captain (Linus Roache, who will look familiar after playing Bruce Wayne’s ill-fated father in Batman Begins) is skeptical of the threat, given the packed flight’s close quarters, but, sure enough, people start dying. Then, the increasingly rattled and paranoid Marks packs the passengers together and holds them at gunpoint, demanding to see their hands, to see their phones, and to demand information. Terrified and confused, the passengers begin to suspect something about Marks’ allegiances, especially when word get out that he’s a drunk and a divorcee loner with a controversial reputation and long-standing grief over a lost child. And then there’s that suspicious suitcase that was brought on the flight by a fellow air marshal, who somehow ended up dead at Marks’s hands…

Anyone who doesn’t already like air travel should definitely avoid Non-Stop—the content of which looks even more disturbing in light of the recent real-world story of the missing flight from Malaysia, which, itself, was likely hijacked or steered awry by someone on the crew who was thought to be trustworthy. Riding Neeson’s broad, intense shoulders, this film is crazy-suspenseful and it’s easy to imagine the confusion and terror experienced by the passengers, what with the unforgettable facts of 9/11 and the isolation of airplanes miles into thea ir. Solid supporting performances are given by Moore, Michelle Dockery as a put-upon flight attendant, Scoot McNairy (from the Best Picture winner Argo) as a weak-looking-but-suspicious passenger, Corey Stoll as an off-duty cop who tries to rally his fellow passengers into a mutiny against Marks, and recent Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o as another wary, scared flight attendant. Like most claustrophobic terrorist thrillers, Non-Stop can hold you in quite a grip (despite a certain lack of originality), but sustaining that is always a difficult task. This film does unfortunately deflate a little with a too-happy ending. It doesn’t feature Neeson’s best or most original performance, either. But if you’ve got the guts for it, it’ll hold your attention.

MORE INFORMATION

Divergent (2014)

Directed by Neil Burger

Written for the Screen by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor

Based on the novel “Divergent” by Veronica Roth

Rated PG-13

Length: 139 minutes

Son of God (2014)

Directed by Christopher Spencer

Written for the Screen by Richard Bedser, Christopher Spencer, Colin Swash and Nic Young

Rated PG-13

Length: 138 minutes

Non-Stop (2014)

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Written for the Screen by John W. Richardson, Christopher Roach and Ryan Engle

Rated PG-13

Length: 106 minutes