DIVERGENT (Rated PG-13)

The dystopian future has become a commonplace staple of the cinema geared to young adults. From “Twilight” to “The Hunger Games,” an imaginary world where dehumanized people lead fearful lives is all the rage.

“Divergent,” based upon young author Veronica Roth’s bestselling novel of the same title, has been likened to “The Hunger Games” meets “The Matrix,” as noted by one of the film’s producers in the press notes.

The above-mentioned films that fit into this anti-utopian genre have gained popularity for their respective franchises. The jury may be out on whether “Divergent” scores big enough at the box office to elevate Roth’s sequel novels, “Insurgent” and “Allegiant,” into the same cinematic orbit.

Running at 140 minutes, “Divergent” may achieve a split decision with critics and audiences alike. The film has promise, especially with Shailene Woodley in the leading role, but it appears in need of surgical strikes to trim some of the narrative overload and the surfeit of action set-pieces.

The setting of the story is in a post-apocalyptic, decaying Chicago, where the inhabitants are believed to be the last remnants of civilization. The city’s boundaries are protected by electrified high walls.

Societal functions are given to five basic factions, including Amity, Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite. One needs to be able to fit neatly into one of the factions. It’s a cultural phenomenon typically relegated to high schools. But here it is more insidious and consequential.

Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) lives with her parents (Tony Goldwyn and Ashley Judd) and twin brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) in the drab world of Abnegation, where people wear sack clothes, reject vanity and pursue altruistic motives.

The lifestyle of the Abnegation faction is vaguely communal and boring. This explains why Beatrice is tormented when confronted with being required to choose her path in life during her teens.

All children at the age of 16 must choose a faction, resulting in a decision that is irreversible. The Choosing Ceremony follows a drug-induced test that measures each young person’s aptitude and personality traits, thereby guiding impressionable minds to a permanent choice.

At the ceremony, following the usual rituals, Beatrice is confused because the tests conducted by sympathetic Tori (Maggie Q) had shown that her aptitude rests in several factions, making her a “Divergent,” or what others would call a rebellious outsider.

Inexplicably, Beatrice chooses to join Dauntless, the fearless warriors and soldiers who are assigned to guard the other factions against harm, but seem to have no problem with inflicting it on their own members.

Joining Dauntless obliges Beatrice to undergo extreme physical training, a feat for which she appears unsuited, even to the somewhat considerate Dauntless teacher Four (Theo James), a hunky, handsome dude who just may warm to the beautiful innocence of his charge.

“Divergent” spends an inordinate amount of time with the training exercises, which range from jumping onto rooftops from fast-moving elevated subway trains and zip lining from skyscrapers to winner-take-all boxing matches that often send the participants to the infirmary.

Not one of the top-ranked initiates, Beatrice has a lot to prove. For one thing, she changes her name to Tris, because it sounds more fitting for Dauntless. Her skills improve when she realizes that coming in at the bottom of the class will get rookies booted from the faction.

Free thinkers are frowned upon, apparently in every faction. Tris proves not to be the best fit even for the supposedly rebellious Dauntless faction, where one of its leaders, Eric (Jai Courtney), is a basic jerk who disdains independent thought.

Conflict comes when the Erudite faction, led by the imperious Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet), believes it is superior to everyone else and seeks to overthrow the benevolent rule of the Abnegation faction.

The stench of fascism lingers in the air as the ruthless Jeanine seeks to impose her will on the other factions. In fact, Erudite is masterminding an evil plot of mind control so that Dauntless is turned into an army of suppression.

Oddly enough, the Candor and Amity factions are barely noticed, since unfiltered truth-tellers and communal, hard-working agrarian populists are not high on the dystopian hit parade.

“Divergent” is a parable about the virtue of an individual going up against the soul-crushing arrogance of an elite that misguidedly believes it will govern with compassion and benevolence.

The trouble here is that a parable needs to be a short story, and that’s just not the case for “Divergent,” which runs too long for no apparent reason. But hey, Shailene Woodley and Theo James end up making a good team.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.