The second installment of a planned four-part film franchise adapted from author Veronica Roth's dystopian YA trilogy (phew!), "Insurgent" lacks the pop-infused sense of personal discovery found in 2014's "Divergent," but digs deeper to explore its post-apocalyptic world in crisis. It is often tricky to tackle the middle chapter of a series because the story must pick up in mid-flow and end before a resolution is reached. Director Robert Schwentke (2010's "Red"), taking over for Neil Burger, is game for the challenge. He and his screenwriters—Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman (2014's "Winter's Tale") and Mark Bomback (2014's "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes")—have an accomplished, gradually expanding cast at their disposal and, while some are used more fully than others, they without fail bring color and dignity to the picture's somewhat familiar trappings. The MVP of that ensemble is Shailene Woodley (2014's "White Bird in a Blizzard"), whose shorn haircut suits the no-nonsense attitude of a young woman coming into her own as a born fighter for peace and justice.
Two hundred years after the planet's collapse, five factions—the intelligent Erudite, the honest Candor, the peaceful Amity, the brave Dauntless, and the vanity-free Abnegation—are now at the mercy of a dangerous newfound totalitarianism brought about by Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet). Having overthrown the Abnegation-run government and eradicated most of that faction, she has now set her sights on Tris (Shailene Woodley), a Divergent—that is, one exhibiting characteristics of all five groups—whom she sees as the foremost threat to their society. With Tris on the run with fellow Divergent Four (Theo James), her ex-Erudite brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), and the self-serving Dauntless Peter (Miles Teller), their journey takes them first to the welcoming Amity community, and later to a factionless colony where Four's thought-dead mother, Evelyn (Naomi Watts), resides. Tris aims to kill Jeanine before any more innocent lives are lost, but must rethink her game plan when she discovers this out-of-control tyrant needs her alive for a very special, most certainly perilous task.
See Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com. for full review
