Wow. I’m glad I didn’t pick this one. Apparently Insurgent is the second in a trilogy….I didn’t see the first, nor did I read the books, so I went into this raw. I don’t think it really mattered very much though, since this seems to be another in the post-apocalypse theme. It was not specified whether yet another apocalypse was nuclear, biological, hydrological, geological, or eschatological, but here we are. Apparently most of what’s left of humanity is inside a big compound around ruined Chicago (you’d think they’d pick a place with better weather), divided up into a bunch of castes based on dispositions like abnegation (a big word for this sort of movie), amity, candor, erudite, etc. It’s all ruled by a rage queen Jeanine (played by Kate Winslet, who should have stayed on the Titanic) and her corps of armed goons. When she finds out about a mysterious box that contains a secret that can only be unlocked by someone who transcends the castes, she sends the goon squad out on a murderous quest to abduct the person who can unlock the box’s secrets.
Meanwhile, several insurgents have taken refuge with some innocent, rural hippies who gather in a wooden dome to eat tofu, brown rice and cabbage. Needless to say, the hippies’ pleasant routine is about to be disrupted by the goon squad. After a requisite amount of running and shooting in and around the wreckage of Chicago, our hero, the cute “Tris” (Shailene Woodley) is captured and has to be rescued by her boyfriend, the cute “Four” (Theo James). Tris seems to be some sort of renaissance girl, who has all qualities, is cute (did I say that already?) and who can fight and only get a little bloody nose. There is conflict, running and shooting, torture and an eventual confrontation between the cute kids and the wicked, corrupt adult. In the end, of course we are reminded that there is another movie to play out, another ruler to deal with and some plot lines to complete, not to mention, will they ever decide to move out of that mess that Chicago is.
I don’t know what to say about this movie. To begin with, it was 3D. Nothing in this story, except for some deliberately contrived explosions, required 3D, the image qualify was caused to be grainy and stuttery, the whole look was dimmed and nothing was gained. I imagine that the 3D was mainly there to discourage cute pirates with phone-cams. The plot…yet another apocalypse, the day being saved by the cute girls. The characters were mainly middle school kids in their late 20’s, with the usual groups…mean girls, cute girls, bully boys, good athletic boys. Adults don’t look good. They are mainly corrupt, deceptive, ineffectual or all of the above. The characters and their look draws a lot on a certain vampire series. The series really ought to be called “Derivative”. There are pieces of so many other movies and TV shows that, even though I knew nothing going in, it still felt like a re-run of a USA Network series, or the next installment of The Matrix series (without Keanu Reeves, of course). The FX are might have started out good, but were ruined by the cheesy 3D rendering, which really stunk up the place. The acting mainly seemed like a first-read, except for the evil queen Kate, who has some years of experience in raging. I’d like to say that you could do worse for an evening, but that might not be true. Fortunately the theater was empty so I guess the word got out. I will give this one one star, mainly because they did get the sequence of events right and did put credits at the end, but that’s about it. I would also have attached the trailer without the ad, but the ad is more entertaining than the movie.
