Where do I begin? It’s not that Insurgent is a bad film; it’s just a bit messy. This second part of the Divergent series based on the novels by Veronica Roth is slightly better than its predecessor but with two films in, I still don’t fully know or understand the “what” or the “why”. To know why the five fractions exist in the first place is to understand what caused the five fractions to begin with. To this point, these questions have yet to be explained. Warning spoilers ahead…
Taking place shortly after the events of part one, we find our heroine Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) in hiding from the capital and in particular Jeanine (Kate Winslet), leader of the Erudite. She is on the hunt not only for them but anyone who is divergent. They are racing against time in search for allies who are willing to standup and fight against Jeanine.
Apparently the key to the future lies in the past. There is a box that was once in the possession of Tris’ dead mother (Ashley Judd) that contains a message. What that message is, is unknown to Jeanine who uses people with varying degrees of the divergent gene to try and crack open the box. Unfortunately for her, they cannot get through the five levels of “virtual reality” Sims before succumbing to exhaustion and dying. The only one who could is, you guessed it… Tris, who is 100% divergent.
Insurgentis faster paced with its action than Divergent was. That alone makes it better but only slightly. The special effects however seem fit for television more than a big screen action adventure and that makes it disappointing in that regard. The ending and the revelation of life beyond the wall that surrounds futuristic Chicago and somehow this has been some sort of “humanity test” reminded me of another Young Adult novel turned film series, The Maze Runner. I remember feeling cheated when I saw TMR and I can’t help but feel the same after seeing Insurgent.
It’s not that I didn’t like it and Shaliene Woodley certainly has the chops to carry the film. But the key to any trilogy even a bad one is that by the end of the second, there are basic questions that should have been answered while posing a new one that will fuel the finale. Insurgent fuels the next film but it does so because it stumbled onto it not because it was well plotted out.
Over the last few years there has been a slew of Young Adult novels turned into films like Twilight, Percy Jackson, Ender’s Game, the aforementioned The Maze Runner just to name a few and of course The Hunger Games. I don’t include the Harry Potter series because I believe they have transcended the YA distinction and have become part of our everyday culture. The Hunger Games may be teetering of becoming such a series. Only time will tell after Mockingjay, Part 2 arrives in November. The Divergent series is trying to find its place amongst these YA novels. I’m afraid it won’t be the best but it most definitely won’t be the worst either.
The concluding chapter to this saga, The Divergent Series: Allegiant will be divided into two parts. Part 1, will be released on March 18, 2016 while the second part we be released on March 24, 2017.
Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet & Naomi Watts
The Divergent Series: Insurgent (3 out of 5 stars)
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
