2/5 Insurgent Let us get one thing out of the way real quick: any movie that subjects Miles Teller to a small supporting role is not worth watching in the first place. Now that I got that out of my system, I will get down to the technical reasons why this movie sucks. So let’s ask the big sequel question: is it as good as the first one? First off, Spielberg could have directed this and failed to save it from the damning source material that is oh so lame. With that being said, Insurgent is on-par with the quality of Divergent; however, they are not good in different ways - and some things from the original are even improved. Imagine that. If you enjoyed the putrid mediocrity of Divergent, chances are you will still be charmed. Here are a few of the trade-offs between part one and the sequel. Director Robert Schwentke, despite having a load of garbage on his resume like The Time Traveler’s Wife and R.I.P.D., manages to make the dull proceedings feel like the adventure it’s supposed to be. With the superior direction, however, comes a plot that lies there like a dead fish. It is always harder on the second installments of a trilogy. The beginning is in part one and the ending is in part three. Catching Fire did an excellent job of providing its part two with its own contained arch. Insurgent is not so lucky. Literally, the first forty-five minutes is made up of Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), and Caleb (Ansel Elgort) traveling from one refuge to another and continuously saying, “man, we really need to kill that woman from Titanic.” And then whoever is hosting them at the time replies, “yeah, she sucks. Good luck killing her.” | Director: Robert Schwentke Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller Writer: Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman, Mark Bomback |
After that trying first half comes the second half, which attempts to make up for the down time with over exaggerated performances and special effects. Take a look at the promo poster I have posted on the right. It features Tris standing on top of a box that is not only flaming, but floating. That about sums up this portion of the movie. Wait, what was that again? Tris needs to get this tiny, glowing box open by plugging into the matrix and huh…? And just like it started, the movie ends with little fanfare over a few painfully obvious and derivative plot twists. Anyone who says Four’s bad-guy-disguised-as-a-good-guy mother Evelyn (Naomi Watts) is not just a rip off The Hunger Games’ President Coin is living with some serious denial.
The second trade-off comes in the form of a switched spotlight from Woodley to James. In Divergent, Woodley was one of the few things to enjoy, whereas James just sat there and glowered like a lump of coal. With Insurgent, Woodley is relegated to making empty angry faces, cry faces, surprised faces, warrior-faces-that-look-a-little-silly faces and other various facial expressions that do not really mean much. On the other hand, this film gives us a much-needed glance at Four’s emotions under his burley solemn demeanor. Woodley is not bad by any means - is that even possible? -, she simply is given little to do in a movie that prefers plot holes over substance.
Those plot holes, though… We all know by now that Veronica Roth wrote these books with no greater goal than to capitalize off of Hunger Games buzz. Though she fares better with a pen than E.L. James, she can not keep this stupid premise of a movie afloat for twenty minutes without exposing some sort of gaping narrative errors. The movie does little to mend this. There are holes that range from minuscule (Tris’s self-given hair cut that features highlights and layers) to massive (if Jeanine could use the weird bullets to control the minds of three girls and force them to kill themselves, why couldn’t she just control everyone, including Tris). Do not even get me started on the whole diehard personality tests that compose the whole second half of the film. I do not think I could be less excited for part three. Oh, and did I mention that Miles Teller is subjugated to minor supporting status?
The second trade-off comes in the form of a switched spotlight from Woodley to James. In Divergent, Woodley was one of the few things to enjoy, whereas James just sat there and glowered like a lump of coal. With Insurgent, Woodley is relegated to making empty angry faces, cry faces, surprised faces, warrior-faces-that-look-a-little-silly faces and other various facial expressions that do not really mean much. On the other hand, this film gives us a much-needed glance at Four’s emotions under his burley solemn demeanor. Woodley is not bad by any means - is that even possible? -, she simply is given little to do in a movie that prefers plot holes over substance.
Those plot holes, though… We all know by now that Veronica Roth wrote these books with no greater goal than to capitalize off of Hunger Games buzz. Though she fares better with a pen than E.L. James, she can not keep this stupid premise of a movie afloat for twenty minutes without exposing some sort of gaping narrative errors. The movie does little to mend this. There are holes that range from minuscule (Tris’s self-given hair cut that features highlights and layers) to massive (if Jeanine could use the weird bullets to control the minds of three girls and force them to kill themselves, why couldn’t she just control everyone, including Tris). Do not even get me started on the whole diehard personality tests that compose the whole second half of the film. I do not think I could be less excited for part three. Oh, and did I mention that Miles Teller is subjugated to minor supporting status?