FilmSnobReviews

Title: The Divergent Series: Insurgent
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Robert Schwentke
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins

What It Is: The sequel to last years huge box-office success Divergent. This time we are with Tris Pryor (Woodley) following the events of the first film. They are hiding in Abdegnation from the tyranny of the Erudite leader Jeanine (Winslet) who is trying to strike out those known as Divergent. With the love, and help of her boyfriend Four (James) they will set out to find the remaining Dauntless, and build an army to overtake Erudite. Along the way Tris will be haunted by the decisions of her past.

What We Think: Woodley does her best with the material and carries it despite the terrible dialogue, and having to work alongside a human cardboard cutouts in Theo James and the always guilty of this Jai Courtney. Kate Winslet is just wasted (literally and figuratively) in a villain role that doesn’t seem to have enough meat on it. As for the story it tells…well it’s a mess. Often times you cannot make heads or tails of the damn thing. One thing is for sure it’s a very good looking movie. There’s a ton of visual candy, but it all amount to style without substance.

Our Grade: D+, It just doesn’t really connect. Whereas fellow Loinsgate property The Hunger Games gets how to tell it’s narrative and structure so that the audience who are unfamiliar with the books can follow, thats not the case here. If you’re a fan of the series then you will be sufficiently happy if you didn’t read the book and are just going off of the events of the first you can probably skip this one for sure. Fingers crossed The Scorch Trials or the final adventure of Katniss are better then this Hunger Games lite adaptation.