Fish and Cherries Productions

Divergent Series: Insurgent was a huge jump up from the previous movie. While Divergent dragged in quite a few places, Insurgent seemed to fly right by. Part of it was that Triss and her companions actually had a goal that the audience could get behind, which was to put a stop to the killings and crimes against humanity that the council was committing. Also improved were the special effects, which go to absolutely ridiculous degrees in Triss’ mind simulations.

The plot is also cleverer, throwing out a lot more twists in the story and giving us more insight into the world. One of my big complaints with The Hunger Games is that we’re only given a bare outline of the other Districts and are not made privy to what it’s like for people there. Here, though, you get to see how people live in the factions that weren’t touched upon in the last movie and the setting felt richer for it. For all my praise, though, I have one big gripe; the arc of Caleb, Triss’ brother, was very confusing and I was seriously at a loss in figuring out why he was doing what he did. It’s a huge shame too, because a different character who was a heartless piece of crap in the last film got a really brilliant arc with some great payoff.

Overall though, unlike last time, I’m really excited to see where the series goes after this movie. It’s broken away from feeling so derivative and I give it a glowing recommendation, even if that means you have to watch the average first movie to get context.