Insurgent

When Divergent came out one year ago, I wrote that the film featured "some interesting ideas, and a compelling futuristic world".  My hope was that the second installment, Insurgent, would build on that promise.  And while the film is certainly watchable, it feels like a step down from the first.  Instead of building upon or expanding on the world and characters introduced in the first, we get a very standard "second movie", which raises more questions than answers, and seems to exist solely to kill some time until the third installment (which will be split into two films) hits.

Instead of allowing us to learn more about the characters who sparked our interest last time, this time the plot is much more of a straight-forward action film, and based around some kind of box that apparently holds a message from the original founders of the futuristic society that the characters live in.  The evil Jeanine (Kate Winslet) gains possession of the box early in the film, and thinks it will help her with her plan to rule over the other factions in the post-apocalyptic Chicago that serves as the film's setting.  Unfortunately, only a Divergent (someone who holds all five virtues that the society builds itself on) can open it.  For anyone who saw the last movie, there will be no prizes for guessing who the mystery Divergent that can open the box is. 

Speaking of our young Divergent heroine, Tris (once again played by the likable Shailene Woodley), she is on the run after the climax of the last film, where she witnessed her parents and many of her friends get killed during Jeanine's attempt to overthrow part of the futuristic society.  Joining her is her love interest Four (Theo James), her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), and the slimy Peter (Miles Teller), who changes allegiances so many times at the drop of a hat during the course of the film, he comes across more as a tool of the screenplay than a thought-out character.  The young heroes find a safe haven where they can hide from the forces hunting them, so Tris decides to symbolize leaving her old life behind by cutting off her hair.  She joins a long list of female characters in movies who have cut their hair to symbolize moving on with their lives, or starting over.  Of course, any woman can probably tell you that cutting your own hair and not making it look like it was done with a lawn mower is easier said than done.

In order to fight back against the forces pursuing them, Tris might have to make an allegiance with Four's mother, Evelyn (Naomi Watts), who was thought to be dead, and is building a resistance army.  But can she be trusted?  If this plot sounds a little slight to you, that's probably because it is.  The movie tries to pad out this thin premise to two hours by throwing in a lot of recaps of the first movie's plot, more than we probably need.  We get flashbacks, Tris' nightmares about the tragic climax of the last film, and even a scene where Tris and Four are forced to take a truth serum, and recap the events of the last movie to a group of people who think they're fugitives at first.  While I was never exactly bored watching it, I could tell there were many moments where the three credited screenwriters were just killing time, and trying to stretch out the plot.  If the first movie introduced us to this world and these characters, then Insurgent exists simply to bide time before the (hopefully) more interesting events in the third and fourth films.

That's not to say nothing works here.  There are some good action sequences staged here, particularly during the film's last hour, where Tris must go through a series of trials.  In fact, I would say that the action sequences are pretty much the main emphasis this time around, since the characters don't get a lot of opportunities to stand out here.  We don't really learn anything new about them, and relationships are not advanced much past the point where we left them at the end of Divergent.  Tris spends most of her screen time haunted by events in the last movie, and aside from getting a PG-13 sex scene with Four, doesn't get to do much we didn't see before.  Naomi Watts gets some good scenes as new character Evelyn, but the ending of this movie definitely hints that her best moments are ahead.  And then there is Kate Winslet, who memorably played against type as an icy cold wannabe tyrant in the first movie, but here is given little to do.  It really is disappointing.  The first film set her up as a great villain, and then she barely gets to make an impression here.

I would label Insurgent as a movie that disappoints, but still manages to remain on its feet somewhat.  I definitely wanted the movie to flesh out the characters more, and we also get to see very little of the intriguing world the movie is set in.  But, I certainly wouldn't label it as a disaster either.  The characters and performances are still likable, even if they seem a little short changed this time around.  Some of the actors even manage to rise above their slight characters from time to time.  Miles Teller gets a couple laughs as the sarcastic and opportunistic Peter.  And even if their relationship seems a lot more hollow than last time, Shailene Woodley and Theo James do have some kind of romantic spark.  It's definitely hindered by a script that doesn't seem to care much about it, however.  It's the actors that create any chemistry that is there on the screen. 

My hope is that the final two films will go back to fleshing out these characters and making them as interesting as they appeared to be when they were introduced to us.  I'm not writing this series off quite yet, but it is showing signs of frailty.  There are a lot of good actors and some good ideas in this franchise, and hopefully they get the chance to stand out more in the next installment.

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