Film Review - Insurgent (2015)

Insurgent is the 2nd film in the Divergent series and again stars Shailene Woodley as Tris who with Four (Theo James) go on the run following the events of the first film but Jeanine (Kate Winslet) makes a critical discovery that could lead her government and the Factionless led by Evelyn (Naomi Watts) towards a war.

I did not have very high hopes going into this film mainly because I was not a big fan of the first Divergent film but I decided to go and give this 2nd film a chance in the hope it might do the same trick that the 2nd Hunger Games film Catching Fire did in 2013 in that I wasn't a big fan of the first film in that series (I've since come around) but the 2nd one left a strong impression on me, could lightning strike twice or was it a case of the one term wonder casting its spell?

Well it has to be a case (and a very strong one) of the former but while this film is far from terrible this film is also bland with a Capital B and that feeling of blandness permeates throughout the whole film, the storyline feels very routine with the magic Box and the one true person capable of opening it who is part of the Rebel forces, the action sequences feel very tired and flat (gotta get that PG-13 rating in the US or all of those teenage girls can't go and see the movie) and the performances all feel lifeless.

I mean you have some good talent here, Miles Teller (who looks an awful lot like a young John Cusack) wishes he was anywhere else in the world but there, Woodley just goes through the film in chains as when she tries to break out she's put back in the cage by the male leads, Watts and Winslet are given very little if anything to do apart from spout leadership dialogue and Ansel Elgort and Theo James are pretty much playing the part of the hunks.

And yet all I could think of was "Where is the Fire, the Heart and the Imagination of the Hunger Games Series" which to my mind was the series that reminded me of what it was like to be 11 years old and seeing Star Wars for the first time as well as combining the sense of satire and insight that Paul Verhoeven brought to his Sci-Fi work in the late 80s and 90s but alas all this is as well as the first film is a pale bland imitation and that fact is all over these films.

And so to close Insurgent is not a terrible film but it is so very bland to sit through that it just becomes boring by the end, 1.5 out of 5.