Insurgent

Insurgent

Starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts

Directed by Robert Schwentke

Synopsis:
Since attempting to overthrow the evil Jeanine (Kate Winslet), Divergent Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), Tris's brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) and Peter (Miles Teller) are on the run and trying to find more Divergents to wage a war against her, while being tracked by her in an effort to open a mysterious box.

As Tris and Four's relationship blossoms, secrets are uncovered, Tris has to come to terms with who she is, and surprising dangers await at every turn.  Tris finally decides that it's ultimately up to her to stop the bloodshed - by any means necessary.

Review:
First of all, I've never read the books, and probably never will, so I'm basing the merit on the movie by the movie itself, not from how far (and, from what I've heard, VERY far) it deviated from the source material.

That being said, I found it to be an extravagant effects movie, which unfortunately tried to hide a paper-thin story and even worse acting. 

Let's start with the story.  Tell me if you've heard this before: the group of good guys are on the run from a seemingly unstoppable bad guy with everything at their disposal to find them, but are unable to.  Throw in some near misses, learning that one of the good guys is "the one" who can end everything, a heroic sacrifice, an army being built by the remains of a broken society, and a love story at the center.  Yep, that's basically the plot of "Insurgent," along with countless other movies before it.  As I said, I never read the book but easily predicted everything that would happen from start to finish.

Now with the acting.  "Insurgent" has the inherent problem of being the "middle child" of a series, something that befell the likes of "The Two Towers" and "The Desolation of Smaug," but somehow escaped middle films like "The Godfather Part II" and "Catching Fire."  That is, there is no beginning or end.  We've already seen the beginning in "Divergent," and won't see the end until "Allegient" (which, as usual nowadays, they're splitting into two films - which I'm seriously wondering how they're able to do that). 

So "Insurgent" is just something in the middle to advance the story, at the cost of character development.  Four is reduced to a background boyfriend with too many close-ups.  Caleb is still useless.  Jeanine still wants to destroy Divergents for whatever reason.  Lenny Kravitz's daughter is still around doing whatever.  Peter is still a jerk.  The only character who did very well was Tris, and even she was reduced to a one-note character: bearing the weight of the war on her shoulders, holding herself accountable for so many deaths when its clearly nowhere near her fault, and having her cry in pretty much every scene.  Still, Shailene Woodley did this with heart and emotion that pulled you to her character, at the cost of the other stock characters around her.

Then there was the ending.  Not to give anything away, but to me, it felt like the entire film was a huge timebomb ticking down, and once it reached :00, instead of a blast the size of Hiroshima, a little gun came out of it with the word "bang" on it.  I was left feeling very dissatisfied, let down and disappointed, and I only hope the other two films can bring that passion back again.

Still, the effects were stinking amazing.  Truly the strong point of the film, but a movie just centering around beautiful effects can only go so far.  You still need a solid story to tell, and with "Insurgent," that story was severely lacking.

Summary:
While a special effects extravaganza, "Insurgent" tries to hide a narrow plot and poor characterization with amazing effects, which is still a good movie but far from a great one.

My Rating: A-