Insurgent

Woodley and friends act their butts off for a mediocre story

*Reminder* I still haven't read this book series. Still have no need to delve into it.

We continue the story of the last movie following Tris and Four (Shailene Woodley and Theo James) runnning as fugitives from their society. They have a new plan to bring the fight to their pursuers as they search for the rest of their friends in Dauntless. Four's mother appears and offers the aid of the faction-less to bolster the numbers, but four is not happy with her arrangement (given the history they share). With the appearance of a box that Tris' parents were hiding, and the hunt beginning for all Divergents, Tris and four must hold back the forces while trying to stay alive.

So, this was a bit of a hard movie to describe, and that is mainly because the storyline is so jumpy in this that you can't pay attention at one thing for too long. It is so erratic I feel that the writer must have had some form of ADD, but overall it is solid when you can get through everything. I don't hate the overall storyline in this, it serves as a descent enough allegory for Gay Rights, classicism, and racism, while giving today's youth a powerful woman protagonist. Not "Katniss Everdeen powerful," but still it is nice to see that her brother or boyfriend might not always have to come to the rescue; albeit, she does actually get rescued quite often in this.... maybe she isn't the best female role model, but she is okay. Okay. That's a word I would use to describe almost the entirety of this picture. It tries to be a tad bit different, but ends up bland. It is the most "meh" I have ever felt towards a "popular" series.  I like the factions, but hate the fact that they keep adding to the divergent mythos (now you can be a certain percentage Divergent, like a Divergent married into your family or something). Overall, my main problem with this movie is that everything seems so jumbled and forced. For example, two people having sex seems to be in the movie only to appease the fans, and doesn't seem to have much place in the scene. It is a good try, but their is a big problem when the best thing I can say about a story is "that the concept is still interesting" even though we were introduced to this concept last movie.

On the other hand the director seemed to take this project very seriously because everything looks and feels beautiful. It is surprising that the director of films like "R.I.P.D" and "Flightplan" could make something that looks this good, but I can't deny that everything seems to be well above my par. Given that I need more from a film than pretty things to look at, this compliment doesn't hold much water, but I was surprised none the less. Hopefully they give Robert Schwentke a better movie to sink his teeth into next time, and hopefully he can remain on this path.

Oh Shailene Woodley, I wish you would have gotten popular off of a better series, because you do have a great amount of talent. So, unsurprisingly Woodley did a great job in this, her emotions flowed off her like a waterfall, and she got the entire audience glued to the screen, while they empathized with her character. I can only hope that she gets better work. As for the rest of the cast... Miles Teller has fallen a long way from his performance in the amazing "Whiplash," but given the source material he did what he could. Theo James seems to be taking some acting classes, and I can't wait for them to start bearing more fruit... he did better than last time, but still needs some work. Kate Winslett was damn near flawless, and Jai Courtney surprised me with a pretty great performance.

Final Verdict: Netflix it Some pretty stellar performances and directing did a lot for this movie, but not enough to make up for the story. Here is hoping they find a way to keep me interested in the next two or three in the series.