Director: Robert Schwentke
Distributor: Belga Home Video
Duration: 119 minutes
The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
After the successful release of the original Divergent movie, it was only natural that Insurgent would make it to the big (and small) screen as well. The movies are adaptations of the book trilogy by Veronica Roth, which are trying to jump on the bandwagon of futuristic worlds gone bad. Nonetheless, we were still quite stoked to take a closer look at the divergent girl, who became the insurgent that might just save the world from a utopian nightmare.
After escaping from the clutches from the rest of the Dauntless faction, which was under control of Jeanine (Kate Winslet), Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), Caleb (Ansel Elgort) and Peter (Miles Teller) find themselves without a place to stay. This leads them to the friendliest faction of them all, Amity. Whilst the faction leader of Amity, Johanna (Octavia Spencer) isn’t all too keen on offering a permanent home to this ragtag team of outlaws, she still offered them temporary shelter. The group have their fair share of internal problems and when Max (Mekhi Phifer) and Eric (Jai Courtney), the current commanding officers of Dauntless, show up at the doorstep of Amity, it’s sure to be trouble. Tris, Caleb and Four do manage to escape, whilst Peter seemingly betrays the other three, guaranteeing him a safe haven to return to.
After an intense pursuit, the Dauntless soldiers have to give up on their chase as the wanted trio jumps aboard a passing train. Even though the train seemed a great idea at first, there will be no time to catch their breath, seeing the train is filled by factionless people, who aren’t that happy to see strangers barging in on their spacious ride. After a short but hefty confrontation, Four manages to get safe passage by mentioning his real name, Tobias Eaton. This name seems to be very important among the factionless and thus they bring him to their base. Four gets an unwelcome family reunion, which will become a key factor of the movie.
Overall Insurgent follows a fairly slow pace, with enough action to keep things interesting after you’ve been injected with a decent amount of information. This slower pace indicates that the movie is preparing for the final stretch in the coming movies, which will finish the trilogy (Sadly, they decided to split the last book in two separate movies, as is common nowadays). That being said, the pace is quite pleasant for a movie that tackles a heavier subject.
The only remark that some may have, when viewing the movie, is that it’s trying to much to look like other popular titles, such as The Hunger Games and/or The Maze Runner (which can be blamed for trying the same thing too). Certain points in the movie will feel like a déjà vu, if you have seen the aforementioned films. Mostly the style and the overall gritty, dystopian feeling the world presents you with, will look a bit the same in all of those movies. Perhaps it would have been a better choice to aim for a slightly different approach, making the movie a tad more original or distinct from those other blockbusters.
With the many raging debates about the (over)usage of CGI, Insurgent pulls off a decent job of making things feel convincible, without having loads of over-the-top effect to strengthen the atmosphere. Of course, the movie is pretty much all about CGI in many scenes, but they are often justified as being part of a simulation. Overall, a job well done.
Acting performances were okay, but they happened to feel a bit more convincing throughout the plot of the first movie. Nonetheless, Kate Winslet does a great job in playing the villain in this flick (without having to drown poor Leonardo), whilst Shailene Woodley plays a convincing heroine. Even though Shailene trades in her long hair for a trimmed down look, which distances itself slightly with the typical ‘heroine’ look, she easily becomes the star of the movie, standing out above many of the other performances.
The movie has plenty of extras for you to browse through, if you’re still looking for some more content. It’s fun to see how certain scenes were made, as well as receive more information on certain items. It’s also a fun touch, that all the extras are already clearly visible in the main menu of the Blu-ray.
Conclusion
Insurgent proves to be a decent follow-up of the original Divergent movie. It’s clear that this movie serves as a connection between the first and last part, as there is a lot more information than the first film had to offer. Nonetheless, certain key moments will come as a surprise, making it worth your while. That being said, we hope the last part offers us a surprising finale, which is on par with the first movie, or even better.
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