Insurgent

By Heidi Joelle

Insurgent is the second movie in the Divergent series, and the second book in the series of the same name. I think the best way I can sum up my opinion of this installment is when I walked out of the theatre after Divergent, I thought how I had enjoyed myself, Shailene Woodley is a good actress, but I didn't need to see the rest of the these movies in theatre. Whereas when the credits ran for Insurgent, I was left curious how the story would go from here. I call that a win for the movie.

This was my least favorite book in the series, and in my opinion the movie is a stronger story than the book. Pitched as a dystopia tale in the vein of The Hunger Games, much of the Divergent series is focused on the internal struggles of the main character, Tris. The Divergent series is more of a "what if?" story than The Hunger Games. The movie doesn't dwell on her internal turmoil as much as the book did, but still I thought it explained very well her struggles with the events of the previous book. This is a young woman who lost her parents, lost her world essentially, and was forced into killing a friend. She struggles with that loss, and the grief, and the fear that she is just a killing machine. Tris is a hair's breath away from shattering.

I thoroughly enjoyed the clever science fiction imagery, and that you had to pay attention to really know what is real and what is a simulation. And for a PG-13 movie? Some of those scenes were scary stuff. Eric, one of the main villains from the first story, most reminded me of the T-1000 from Terminator 2. Watch how he moves, you'll see it too.

There is a fair amount of profanity and violence throughout the movie. One sex scene, but it does fade to black quickly. The movie does glide over many of the minor characters from the book, such as Four's father whom we barely see at all. The ending is solid, and without knowing that there is a third book, it would be easy to believe that this is the end of the story. I'm excited to see how Allegiant Part One (and two) turns out. That book basically jumps from the YA Dystopia genre into a good old fashion Twilight Zone episode and I hope it translates to a well on screen.

Tags: Christian-Life | Reviews-Critiques