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.

Divergent, on the whole, was okay. There was nothing truly bad in it, but that doesn’t mean it was all that good either. For one thing, a lot of the world felt underdeveloped and the characterization of the characters ranged from sparse to negligible, leaving us with jackasses who have no reason to be jackasses. The male lead in particular was quite cardboard and didn’t seem to have any chemistry with our female protagonist Triss, apart from when they were close and intimate. I’d even argue that a good chunk of the first half, in which Triss is trying to make it through the preliminary trials, felt unneeded and investment-free. Why should we want her to make it into this organization that resembles a fraternity in all the worst ways with a clearly corrupt leadership?

The movie really starts to shine in the final act where there were a lot more clever bits of the narrative, like dialogue and conflict resolution that I won’t give away. The resolution at the end in particular was well executed and, to its credit, was actually one of the things that I couldn’t see coming a mile away. So yeah, as far as young adult novel adaptations go, it’s passable. It’s not as good as The Hunger Games, but it’s certainly not as awful as The Mortal Instruments. Would I go see Insurgent? Yeah, but more out of curiosity and not because this movie made me a diehard fan.

The Fault in Our Stars is a brilliant movie, but a very difficult one for me to talk about and an even harder one to sit through. Growing up, I have lost a lot of people, some young ones to cancer, so watching a movie nail the pain and experiences so well was like losing them all over again. So when I say that I’d have a difficult time watching it again, it has nothing to do with the quality and everything to do with the old wounds it reopened. Some of the lines even felt like they were directed specifically at me, which made the film hit even closer to home. It runs the gambit of emotions, from sadness to laughter to disappointment to joy and even to heartbreak, and ever one of them hit their mark. If you’re looking for a deep film making analysis from me, you won’t find it in this article. The acting, offbeat dialogue, cinematography, and interactions are all beautiful. That’s all I can really say at the moment.