Tris, Four, Peter, and Caleb are hiding within Amity community compound after the events of the attack on Abnegation. They are now considered fugitives and are being hunted by Dauntless, lead by the evil Jeanine. Tris is the divergent that is blamed not only for the attack but for the murders of Will and her own mother and father. So when they are located, they have to run and hide but this will be a lot harder than anyone could expect. They are known through the various factions and are now a prized catch for anyone wanting to make a powerful friend or some money for the various causes. Tris becomes even more valued when a box that contains a very sensitive message is found and she is the only one that can open it.
I have seen The Hunger Games, which I described as the lite version of Battle Royale, the Japanese sci fi masterpiece filled with teens bumping each other off in more horrific ways. Now in the Divergent series we are dealing with much more and from what I can see is a little more complex than both these films. It is built on a fully rationalised world of factions, historic events and action / reaction type devices that have rounded the square. We have characters that are crafted and have deep and complex emotional connection to persons and things. City spaces are crumbled and decayed but all to the effect of telling us where it has come from and of course the good and bad have stark lines.
Ok, enough of my building the realm of Insurgent. The exposition is irrelevant to anyone that has and has not seen the film. Those that know will know where it has come from and those that dont, wont care. What I feel you will want is my opinion of the film and whether it is worth spending your time watching. So what did I feel? Well in truth not really very much. It is a film that looks stunninga and uses CGI amazingly. The action sequences are well paced and executed with attention and care. The sets are stunning as well. Blown out with light in places and grungy and dull in others but all with varied characteristics that add body. The visual flare of the director is also seen in his execution of visual effects to tell a story, one in particular is his cut to a close up inside a building, stunning. Add to this the sound mix and edit and you have a crisp looking and sounding film that has great spaces and places to carry us along.
Like all good things however, we have to see the bad and this is why the film scores so low. Yes for some 3 is low and I would say generous as the film is almost incomprehensible in places. It has too much talk about how this affects that. It trudges along under this weight of telling and not simply letting the audience derive it. This is also cursed by the comprehensive retelling of the first film. This retelling is told in flashback, then narrated and then finally re enacted by the actors. It is not right to jump around and not so often and in so many techniques.This is a major hole that sinks the piece very quickly and makes a film viewer and critic very annoyed. Blockbusters do these things as they are cheap and can fill five minutes of a film that might cost a lot more. I want to also mention another problem. The cast are a mixed bag, some are very good in deed . Shailene Woodley is exceptional both looking and in acting. Winslett is dire and not beautiful in blue.
Insurgent is available on Blu-ray and DVD from 3rd August, courtesy of Entertainment One
