The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Blu-ray + UltraViolet)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Aug 14th, 2015
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Jai Courtney, Mekhi Phifer, Octavia Spencer, Zoe Kravitz, Naomi Watts
Written By: Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman, Mark Bomback
Directed By: Robert Schwentke
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Buy On Amazon.com
I wasn’t really crazy about Divergent, but I think Insurgent corrects some of the things I didn’t like about the first one. The movie series still tries too hard to be The Hunger Games but at least it’s entertaining this time.
Insurgent takes place 3 days after the first movie, and the assault on Abnegation by faction leader Jeanine’s (Kate Winslet) dauntless soldiers. Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), Peter (Miles Teller) and Tris’ brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) are on the run for being blamed for the massacre and hide out at a Amity compound. The dauntless soldiers recover some mysterious box that has all the factions symbols on it and they bring it back to Jeanine. Meanwhile Tris and Four vow to bring down Jeanine, protect their people, family and friends and try to discover stuff from their past. Or something like that.
Insurgent seemed like a vast improvement over Divergent. The girly teen soundtrack went bye bye, well except the end song but that’s sort of acceptable. It didn’t feel bog down as much and as soon as the movie starts, there’s some action and stuff happening. If you didn’t see the first movie, well duh, go watch that if you plan on seeing this because you’ll be confused. Honestly, I saw the first movie and still had to read wikipedia just to figure out what the hell happened in the first movie. All those faction names and characters, I was seriously lost. There’s still issues with the series and this movie, like some of the dialogue. “Where’s your evil boyfriend. Oh I don’t know, off doing evil boyfriend things.” Cringe-worthy to say the least.
The acting is okay, although I’m still not sold on Shailene Woodley as the main lead. When she screams, it sounds like a kitten being murdered. Kate Winslet plays a good villain and I think she should play some more villains. Miles Teller plays an asshole very well, a little too well actually. I wanted his character to die in the first movie and still wished it after the second one. The addition of Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer gave the movie some gravitas. Other than that, I thought the direction was more focused and better. The movie actually made me want to watch the next one, unlike Divergent.
The Blu-Ray offers some special features like an Insurgent Unlocked feature, where you can watch the movie in the corner while watching extras. I’m not a fan of showing extra this way because it’s hard to concentrate on both. That adds up to almost the length of the movie, but there’s some other little extras to watch as well. That’s a lot of fluff pieces though so the main stuff is in the unlocked feature.
Insurgent is a better movie than Divergent but still has some flaws. If you thought the first one wasn’t that great, give this one a chance.
Features
“Insurgent” Unlocked
From “Divergent” to “Insurgent”
Diverging: Adapting “Insurgent” to the Screen
The Others: Cast and Characters
The Train Fight Unlocked
The Peter Hayes Story
Gallery
Audio Commentary with Producers
Video
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color
Audio
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
English Dolby Digital Stereo
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Bottom Line: A rare thing, a sequel that is better than the original movie
Running Time: 119 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
