Review by CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB “Insurgent” is the second in a trilogy of movies based on Veronica Roth’s book trilogy. If you saw Divergent last year, you will be well prepared for the next installment of the story. If you didn’t see it or read the books, this film doesn’t help you much. But it is entertaining and it does lead up to Allegiant, the third book in the series.
“Insurgent” movie poster. Courtesy/Reel Deal
This film version of Insurgent does not explain the faction-based, dystopian society into which it leads you, nor does it explain what each of the factions excels at: Erudite, Candor, Abnegation (which was destroyed in the last installment), Amity and Dauntless. If you hadn’t read the book or seen the first film, would you know why there is another group of people called the “factionless”?
In this film, “Tris” (played by Shailene Woodley) and her boyfriend “Four” (played by Theo James), along with Tris’ erudite brother, Caleb (Ansel Elgort), and a bunch of their fellow Dauntless rebels, are on the run and have taken refuge in Amity. The peace-loving Amity farmers, led by Johanna (Olivia Spencer), put up with the mostly Dauntless rebels helping out around the place until violence erupts. Erudite government soldiers invade looking for the rebels, who manage, however improbably, to escape.
Evading the soldiers, they run into the Factionless, who take them to their headquarters. In the meantime, Jeanine (Kate Winslet) is sending her Erudite soldiers out to find a divergent who can survive all five faction simulations to open a box from the founders. Inside is a message she is sure will tell them what to do with the divergents. Her soldier teams have a new meter that can read the percentage of divergence in a person. They use this to find subjects to try to open the box, most of whom die in the process. Tris is the perfect Divergent for the project. How will she avoid being caught for Jeanine’s diabolical purposes?
If any of that made sense to you and if you can stand a little teen romance thrown in to help earn this violent film a PG-13 rating, then you will find it vastly more entertaining than any of the recent movies available at present. Insurgent is showing in 3D or 2D. Either way, it’s a wild ride.
