Insurgent Review
It’s pretty
safe to say that I wasn’t looking forward to Insurgent., it being the sequel to
the worst film of last year: Divergent. Its predecessor was a plodding, poorly
written and maddeningly dull pile of…claptrap, made unforgivable by a premise
so nonsensical, I wouldn’t be surprised if author Veronica Roth (on whose book
series the films are based) turned out to be an extraterrestrial sent here to
discover how much…claptrap we are capable of withstanding. My god… the premise.
A world in which society is split into five factions based on their SOLE
personality trait will never exist. That’s because this isn’t a dystopian
future based on real socio-economic issues like The Hunger Games, it’s a
manipulative, insulting and shockingly simplistic parable for teenage girls’
first world problems. But I digress. Insurgent is an objective improvement on
its predecessor, until what perhaps constitutes the single worst twist I have
ever experienced. If Veronica Roth is here to torture us with lazy writing and
absurd storylines, she’s doing a damn good job of it…
Picking up
the story a few days after the first film, Insurgent follows Tris ( a young
woman on the run for not completely fitting into any of the five factions,
because it’s not like everyone would display more than one personality trait!),
her boyfriend Four (Theo James, displaying the charisma of a blocked toilet),
brother Caleb (a disappointingly bland Ansel Elgort) and semi-nemesis Peter
(Miles Teller, unfortunately stuck in a franchise he signed on to before the
world realised he could act) as they attempt to evade Kate Winslet’s Jeanine,
who is signified as malevolent by being an adult. As you would have cleverly
surmised from the spoiler-tastic trailers, Tris is captured and forced to
perform a series of tasks, each based on one of the five factions to open a
box. That’s honestly the entire second half of the movie: Shailene Woodley (a
fine actress struggling to find any nuance in a truly awful script) jumping
around a green-screened world as Kate Winslet stares at a screen and basing her
entire performance on the word ‘stoic’.
Other
Divergents have unsuccessfully attempted to open this box, but you see: Tris
isn’t just Divergent, she’s the most Divergent-est person EVAR. For the
observant in the audience and the subconscious of the teenage audience who
honestly believe these films are more than… claptrap, the whole franchise is an
unapologetic metaphor for a high school cafeteria, with the social structure
divided by personality and every adult occupying a space of absolute tyranny.
The film takes this to the extreme on multiple occasions; a notable example
being Octavia Spencers’ character shouting “My office. Now.” after a fight
breaks out…in a makeshift cafeteria. This level of obnoxious pandering is
turned up to 11 (yes, even after as depressing an experience as watching
Insurgent, I still manage to shoe-horn in random movie references) with THAT twist
ending. As it turns out, the box contains a message from the founders of the
franchise’s ridiculous world, which informs us that the Divergent are in fact
the saviours of the world and superior to the easily dividable in every
conceivable way. That’s right, everyone who feels like they don’t fit in (which,
let’s face it, is every teenager on the planet), being different doesn’t mean
you’re as good as everyone else, it means your better! Do I even have to
explain the inherent stupidity of that message? A franchise that could have
been an important celebration of individualism as an equal to commonality
reduces itself to a black-and-white depiction of people not “getting you”.
Woodley
gives her all as Tris, but even an actress of her considerable talent can’t
make even the best scenes any better than passable, and she’s not helped by her
sleep-walking co-stars. Elgort and Teller obviously have no investment in the
franchise other than a financial one, which is understandably for two gifted
actors lumbered with such poor material. And Theo James… is a terrible actor.
Seriously, the guy is obviously only employed for his looks and imbues Four
with the charm of a moderately sized rock. Jai Courtney reprises his role as
bullish traitor Eric whilst continuing to fail in showing we Hollywood insists
on him being the next big thing. The impressive adult cast , including Winslet,
Spencer, Naomi Watts and Ray Stevenson are unforgivably wasted. Seriously
Insurgent, you have Ray Stevenson and you give him a maximum of 10 lines?
Winslet receives the most screen time, but fails to register with a role that
requires her to display emotional detachment (not exactly challenging!)
Director
Robert Schwentke is a marked improvement on Divergent’s Neil Burger in terms of
action scenes. Schwentke uses many wide shots and long takes, giving set pieces
a clear sense of geography often lacking in modern action movies. Writers Brian
Duffield, Akiva Goldsman and Mark Bomback were never going to be able to create
a worthy product from Roth’s godawful novels, but would it have hurt them to
have tried? Schwentke keeps decent control of the technical aspects, and I look
forward to see him implement his skill on a film worth making. That is perhaps
Insurgent’s greatest crime: bringing together such a talented group of
individuals (along with Theo James) and wasting them on a pandering, nauseating
and ultimately infuriating waste of time.
The morning
before I saw, nay suffered through, this travesty, my friend told me it was
“just as good as the first one”. Having seen it, I am forced to agree with her.
Unfortunately, that means it’s the current frontrunner for worst film of the
year.
Five-Word Verdict: A steaming pile of... claptrap
Score: 1/5
