Before I start, I need to tell you there may be spoilers ahead if you have not see Divergent (2014) or this movie.
Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Theo James and Kate Winslet all reconvene for the follow up to 2014's YA blockbuster Divergent. Picking up merely 3 days after the last finished, Tris & Co continue on the quest for the truth about divergents and to userp Janine (Kate Winslet) and the regime she is creating. Ironically, Tris (Woodley) is the one girl who can take her down and her quest takes her and her band of acquaintances to come face to face with Janine once more. Janine is on a quest to open a box of secrets that can only be opened by a divergent who can survive all five factions fear landscapes - and finds Tris is the only one who could do this. Will Tris give herself up? Will she successfully open the box or die in the process? And what exactly is Janine's plan?
The movie is much the same as the first - setting the scene and a few bits of action here and there. As a massive fan of the books, I am very much in love with the characters and in this movie they are represented well. I had my doubts - especially about Theo James as Four, but they won me over in the first movie and they have all returned for the sequel. Miles Teller's Peter is much different to the book (and plays quite a main role in the books). He was barely registering in the first movie, but he plays a bigger part here with some great witticisms and does just enough to come across as a little bit sinister. Ansel Elgort's Caleb is just as I imagined him and Woodley does well as Tris.
THIS IS THE BIT WHERE SPOILERS ARRIVE
Overall the movie is good, but as a fan of the books I was a bit disappointed. Some scenes are presented differently than what I imagined them to be. The scene at Candor where a character is executed had a line of "be brave, (insert characters name here)" before another character shoots them in the head in the book. It was quite a resounding scene for me in the book, and the phrase "be brave" was quite a common phrase and was also quite a powerful one. Be brave, Tris or be brave generally is used quite a lot in the book, and for it to be used to a character who's life was about to be taken would have been very powerful in the movie too. But to my shock, horror and amazement - they didn't say it. It's going to annoy me every time I see this movie now.
Another gripe is that some of this movie is based on assumption. There is a strong relationship between two characters in the book called Will and Christina who befriend Tris when she joins Dauntless the same time as them. In the Divergent movie it is alluded to only once where Will and Christina are sat on the bed together. Not only that but the characters are hardly spoken about (and this includes Peter) so we only really know Will when he is shot by Tris at the end of Divergent. Anyway, when it comes to Tris being given a truth serum in the Insurgent movie she blurts out that she killed Will. In a scene previous Christina asks about Will and Tris says she doesn't know and hasn't heard anything. In the scene after the truth serum, Christina stops Tris as if she's going to shout at her, then steps out of her way and says "just go" and Tris leaves. Later still, when Christina is under Janinie's hypnotism thingy and Tris saves her, they go back to being best friends. This is understandable if you read the book but in the stand alone movie world it is so unexplained that it's confusing. And there's more examples of this happening in the movie. I suppose most people who read the books would go ah, I know what's been happening. But unless you didn't really care about the story and watching it for James' abs or Shailene's cuteness, then the story has taken quite a few shortcuts to get where it needed to be. My brother argued that it would have made the film even longer, but I would argue one quick scene to explain - maybe a heart to heart with Tris and Christina would have sorted this out - what's an extra 2-3 minutes in a movie?
SPOILER BIT ENDED - YOU CAN READ FROM HERE
The special effects are fantastic in this movie (especially the 3D one I was) and there's good acting in the main. I think the movie is a generally good movie and is a strong sequel but it could have been better in places. I love Tris and Four as characters and James and Woodley do them justice. It's good to see Peter play a bigger part unlike the last movie where he got a few snide remarks in and was more of an annoyance than a threat. It also sets up nicely for the final movie which, I am told, is going to be in two parts *sigh*. Still, Insurgent is a good entry into the YA dystopian genre that is so popular in the world right now. Hunger Games need not worry too much but it's still a great series of films and I can't wait to see the last ... two of the four part trilogy.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent is out now in 3D, IMAX and 2D at all good cinemas.
POPSCORE: 7/10
What is it? Divergent sequel, Insurgent movie
Where do I find out more? http://divergentthemovie.com/
If you liked this try - Divergent, Hunger games movies, Maze Runner, Harry Potter, The Village
Anything else?
This is based on the second book in Veronica Roth's Divergent series, also called Insurgent.
Shailene Woodley has previously worked with Ansel Elgort on Fault In Our Stars and, of course, the original Divergent movie. She has also worked with Miles Teller before in a different movie as well as Divergent.
This is the only sequel that Kate Winslet has made.
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