Insurgent (2015)

If there is one genre which has grown a lot in the last couple of years it is the “young adult” one and more specific the movies which are set against a future society where there (usually) is one special person who is the key to solving a huge problem within that society. The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner are examples of it and so is Insurgent.

In the first movie the viewer was introduced to the world of Tris (Shailene Woodley), in which order was kept by placing people in specific factions based on their character. Tris turned out to be someone who didn’t fit to one of the faction and ended up facing the political leader, having to fight her. It was an enjoyable movie which nicely set up the world. With the world building done in the first movie, it was a question what would be done with it in this second film.

This second movie is, just like the first movie, about the battle between Tris and Jeanine (Kate Winslet). Tris still is set to get rid of her, while Jeanine has found a box which possibly contains something which could make her even more powerful. She needs a Divergent though in order to open it. How will this story develop?

In a few short flashbacks the film it reminds the viewer what happened in the first movie, getting you up to speed. Tris and her boyfriend Four (Theo James) start out more or less alone and have to get an army together in orde to fight to make their move.

Visually the movie is impressive, but unfortunately the story doesn’t follow suit. It regularly happens that characters make illogical choices or where specific scenes seem superfluous. An example of this is a scene near the beginning of the movie where a big fight happens which suddenly stops because someone says his name (which he could have done earlier). Moments like that make it feel that what came before was just some needed action to make the movie more interesting for the viewer, but the don’t really develop the story. Tris regularly has nightmares, but after seeing those two or three times they lose their power of surprising when something doesn’t turn out to be real. The trick simply is used too much and the result is something which won’t move you anymore. Woodley is as solid as she always is, easily carrying the movie, but Miles Teller (who normally is great) seems to be acting in a different movie compared to the others as he plays charming/funny at moment it doesn’t fit, making his motivation for doing specific things feel false.

Towards the end of the movie gets a bit more interesting as everything is set up for the third one. I hope it will be better than this one as Divergent didn’t manage to interest me enough unfortunately.