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The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

While the Divergent series attempts to capture the excitement of the Hunger Games franchise with its follow-up, Insurgent, this sequel is most similar to the worst of the Twilight films: New Moon. It pointlessly kills time before simply regurgitating the most interesting scenes from the first film. Then, it ends on a note that makes you wonder how many more of these films we still have to sit through. You'll be bored all the way through its nearly 2-hour running time.

Having foiled Erudite Leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) and her evil plan to take over Chicago, Tris (Shailene Woodley) is on the run. Accompanied by Four (Theo James), Peter (Miles Teller) and Caleb (Ansel Elgort), they search for allies to stop Jeanine once more. It's only a matter of time before she opens the mysterious five-sided box she claims will give her the ability to end the Divergent problem once and for all.

If you powered through Tris’ first adventure and didn’t quite buy the world it was set in, I’ve got some bad news for you. This loopy post-apocalyptic society where everyone is sorted into categories based on how one-dimensional they are? It doesn’t make any more sense this time around. Actually, the more we see of this world, the less logical it seems. I’ve seen this film twice and I'm still unsure - personality-wise - how the now-defunct political class of Abegnation (who strive to be as selfless as possible) differs from the Amity (farmers who always wish each other peace and well). Director Robert Schwentke is working with such weak material and the plot does no one any favors. Much of Insurgent repeats what we saw before, except this time, we don’t even have the tension of whether Tris will make the Dauntless team or not.

I know this is the future and it’s so removed from our society that people think differently but this only goes so far. Every hero we meet is flat and uninteresting. That goes double for the villains. There’s the power-hungry Jeanine, who is convinced the five-sided box that can only be opened by a divergent… will prove that divergent’s are good for nothing but extermination. I thought she was supposed to be from the smart faction. Without knowing what the contents are, the fact that a divergent person is the key… kinda proves the people who set up this crazy city believed divergents would be a lasting thing, wouldn’t it? Then, there’s Jai Courtney as Eric, Jeanine’s chief enforcer who, of course, delights in massacring innocents because… HE’S EVIL! The faster he gets defeated, the better but as annoying as he is, it's nothing compared to Miles Teller as Peter, who is tagging along with Tris and her friends for reasons no one watching will understand. Didn't he betray them at the end of the last film? What makes them think he’s trustworthy now?

Despite a couple of flashy scenes and some developments in the romance between Tris and Four, Insurgent will threaten to put you to sleep. This film ends on a note that promises a sequel… but also doesn’t, as if no one was confident enough in the final product to fully commit. Those who read the books by Veronica Roth may be excited enough when they see what they pictured in their heads come to life to look past the numerous logical holes in the story. Even so, I bet they’d all rather be watching The Hunger Games. (On Blu-ray, October 12, 2018)