Movie Review: Insurgent


The second movie in the Divergent series, Insurgent follows Tris, Four, and their friends as they continue to try to disband the oppressive government, and Tris wants to kill Jeanine, as well, who is responsible for countless deaths. Things don't always go as planned, though, especially with the addition of some new characters into the mix.

The film opens with a message from leader Jeanine to the city, and then we see Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), Peter (Miles Teller), and Tris's brother, Caleb (Ansel Elgort), who have taken refuge at Amity. Amity is led by Johanna (Octavia Spencer), and she's about to kick them out for fighting, when Eric (Jai Courtney) and his goons show up looking for them. Tris and co. flee, and again are on the run; they end up back in the city (a dystopian Chicago), at Candor headquarters, where they must convince the leader of their innocence from crimes supposedly committed during Divergent (first movie), and also put together an attack on Jeanine and her minions. What they don't anticipate, though, is running into Four's mother, Evelyn (Naomi Watts), who was believed to be dead - and who has her own plan to dethrone Jeanine.

This movie started off a little bit slow, but the action soon picked up. Tris chops off her hair in the beginning of the movie, too, so she looks more like her character from The Fault in Our Stars than the Tris from Divergent (and to complicate matters, her boyfriend from that movie - Ansel Elgort - is her brother in this film!). I've read the entire Divergent trilogy, but I read Insurgent a while ago; comparing its Wiki page to the movie, it's a little bit different (including the ending, which is crazy!), but they also stayed true to the overall storyline, in my opinion.

Yes,
see this movie. I did like the first film better overall, but the middle movie in trilogies sometimes tends to be weak, and this was not the case here. Kate Winslet, as the evil leader Jeanine, and Shailene Woodley in particular were very good in this film. The end of the movie definitely sets up Allegiant (Divergent #3) well, and I'm excited to see it when it comes out next year in 2016. To say more about the plot here would be to spoil it, but I will say that I recommend seeing Divergent first before seeing this installment; my mother hadn't seen it, so I had to fill her in on the plot before and during Insurgent. We're also introduced to two pretty big stars here - Octavia Spencer as Johanna, the Amity leader, and Naomi Watts as Evelyn, Tris's mother - but Spencer doesn't have much screentime (more so at the beginning of the film); Watts will undoubtedly show up in the next installment, based on this film's ending.

Insurgent is in theaters today, March 20th, and is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 119 minutes. 4 stars out of 5.

Popular Posts

Review: Polar Pizza at Baskin-Robbins

Upcoming and GIVEAWAY: Mamma Mia! at the Fisher Theatre, Detroit, April 23-28 {ends Dec. 12}

REVIEW and GIVEAWAY: Allegiant Nonstop game center (Warren, MI) is fun for the whole family