Review of Insurgent (2015) by Angelique M — 03 Sep 2015

Insurgent is the sequel to the Divergent based on the book series of the same name. In Insurgent we find Tris (Shailene Woodley) on the run from the government after having attempted to expose their plot for the greater good. She is accompanied by three of the guys she has shared on screen kisses with in previous films (This is no joke, look it up, seriously). When it is revealed that the reason for the plot was to uncover a devise that would tell the governing bodies how to get rid of the divergent's forever. But to get it open they need a divergent, like Tris. It's important to remember that people in this world are grouped into factions based on personality traits: Honesty, Intelligence, Courage, Kindness, and Selflessness. Divergents are people who fit into multiple categories. It makes sense in the books and movies.

Things I Liked:

Shailene Woodley. Woodley gives a grand performance as Tris. She does an effective job of carrying the movie on her shoulders and her work stands out many different times throughout the film. Is it her greatest performance ever? Probably not, but of many of the performances in this film she is one of the strongest and being the main character makes her performance vital to ensure your interest throughout the film.

The Story. The plot of this film is much more interesting than the previous one. The story assumes you know most of the aspects of the world and gets the story moving quickly. There is almost constant motivations driving characters forward in various ways and though there are some stretched coincidental aspects to the film, the plot is much more interesting and much less tiresome than the previous one was. I found myself much more interested in the characters and the situation than I had after Divergent.

Things I Didn't Like:

Theo James. James plays main hunk Four in this film and he is what I would describe as boring and unnecessary eye candy. Woodley constantly has to pick up the slack for James in their scenes and anytime we are focusing on Four we are bored out of our minds. There were moments where I was hoping that they would do something else with Four besides use him to motivate Tris to do something stupid. When characters become little more than talking plot devices, they should be written off for better and more interesting characters.

Visual Effects. For a film this visually heavy you would think they would work more to make the visuals seem a little less cartoony. The digital effects are just very poorly rendered at times and it makes it very clear that an actor is standing in front of a green screen or, in some cases, not even there themselves and in a scene that is fully digital. It distracts from the movie and it makes you focus more on the odd and poorly created graphics rather than what they are supposed to be to tell the story.

Overall. Overall I would say that Insurgent is actually a more interesting film overall than Divergent was. While I was bored in parts of Divergent the action of Insurgent was constantly moving forward and the world didn't feel the need to expand to tell any stronger of a story. Most of the characters are more interesting and get pushed forward in unique ways, the exception being James' Four who I felt was almost unneeded from the story all together. The visual effects were distraction and hard to keep focused on but overall I would say that Insurgent was actually a pretty fun time.