Movie Review: INSURGENT

So before I begin my review, I just want to say that I wasn't a huge fan of the Divergent movie. I came out of the cinema after seeing it thinking that it completely sucked. So my expectations for Insurgent were very, very low. It did surprise me because it was a lot better than Divergent, but it still wasn't what I'd consider a good film.

ALSO, I'm going to include spoilers in my review because there are some scenes I want to talk about - especially the ending - so if you don't want the film ruined, please don't read this until you've seen it.

CHARACTERS/ACTING

Tris was always one of my favourite book characters. She's selfless, loyal, brave, a bit headstrong, but overall, a brilliant character. In all honesty, I'm not sure Shailene Woodley was the right casting choice for Tris (in my opinion). I've never really gotten a bad ass vibe from her, and Tris needs to be a bad ass. She always seems to come across as weak and naive, and that's not Tris. I do like Shailene Woodley, I just don't think she has what was needed for Tris. 

Four is a complex character. He's got a lot of secrets and lot of things he's dealing with on his own, but I always liked him. However, I do feel like Theo James comes across pretty wooden as Four. He always seems to have the same expression on his face and there aren't many changes in his emotions. I was hoping he would have improved since Divergent, but I don't think he has.

Peter is a character I loathed in the books. I absolutely hated Peter and would have loved to see Tris kill him. But Peter saved this movie for me - well, Miles Teller is more to thank for that. Peter is an ass, but he's open about it. He knows everyone hates him and he literally doesn't care. Peter is only about doing what will save his own ass, he doesn't care what happens to anyone else. Miles brought a lot of hilarity to Peter's character and has done the impossible and made me love him. PLEASE HAVE LOTS OF PETER IN ALLEGIANT.

Caleb is another character I didn't like, mainly because he's a spineless git who deserved what he had coming to him. Ansel Elgort does a fantastic job at making me hate Caleb even more. He totally got Caleb's spineless, terrified nature down and showed that Caleb genuinely thought what he did was right (even though it totally wasn't and Tris should just disown him).

Jeanine Matthews is a ruthless bitch. She's basically killing Divergents to open her stupid box thingy to get a message and she doesn't care. Kate Winslet does a brilliant job of portraying Jeanine. She totally got her bitchy, ruthless attitude down and seriously makes me hate Jeanine. 

Uriah is very absent from Insurgent which upset me. Uriah was probably my favourite character in the series and he's basically just been sidelined. He was missing from Divergent all together and they've just thrown him into Insurgent because he's important in Allegiant. He didn't have a lot to do in Insurgent which really upset me. 

Did anyone else think that Naomi Watts playing Evelyn Eaton looked like 10 years younger than her son? It was so trippy! I kept thinking that Theo looked a hell of a lot older than Naomi and it was just so weird that she was his mother. But I like Naomi Watts and I think she did a good job as Evelyn. Her role was slightly changed in the movie because the ending was completely different from the book, but I'm sure she'll have a bigger part to play in Allegiant.

PLOT

I'm going to put my hands up and say I totally forgot what happened in Insurgent. It's been about 2 years (I think) since I read it and I could only vaguely remember what happened. But there were quite a lot of scenes in the movie that were in the book, but the movie went a completely different way at the end.

I liked getting to see Amity at the beginning. Their faction looks like so much fun. Everyone is care free and gets to wear bright clothing instead of the dull colours of the other factions. It started off alright with a bit of awkward chemistry between Tris and Four after she cut her hair off, and not much happens until Eric and his buddies show up in cars that I'm totally sure were stolen from the Peacekeepers in The Hunger Games (they honestly looked exactly the same) and Peter sold everyone out to protect himself. The chase scene was pretty ridiculous because Four, Tris and Caleb were on foot and Eric was in a car - he totally could have caught them if he'd floored it!

The fight scene against the factionless on the train was pretty good. Lots of throwing people against walls and punching. I enjoyed that. And we also got to see the first reason that Caleb should never have been saved. Tris had been tackled by a factionless and she was hanging out of the train door with a knife to her throat (?) and Caleb literally just stood there watching his sister almost get killed. I would have been screaming obscenities at the screen if I hadn't been in the cinema. Tris should have punched him for that. Actually, Four should have because it would've hurt more.

Jeanine is busy fiddling with her stupid damn box trying to figure out how to open it, and obviously, only a Divergent can. So she sends Eric and the rest of the douche squad out to find them (see the Amity bit at the top) and bring them in so they can try to complete all 5 simulations (one for each faction). And it takes her forever to realise that she needs a strong Divergent, but not once does she think of Tris. And I'm pretty sure I remember Jeanine specifically hunting down Tris in Insurgent? Am I wrong? I just didn't get how she could have totally forgotten about her altogether.

So the box is the thing that's got the message from the outside world in it, and Tris eventually gave herself up to save more people from dying, and was put in the simulation while Jeanine and her TRAITOR brother watched. It was an interesting way to do it, but it still confused the hell out of me. And then we got to the point where Tris 'dies' and I'd totally forgotten about that and I don't think it even bothered me one bit. Peter wheels her out acting like his usual jackass self, Four sees her and his face still remains like stone (seriously, I got no emotion from him at all). And then they go to escape, but NOOOOO, Tris can't leave without the damn box even though 5 seconds before she was all "Let's get out of here."

The message in the box was quite a bit different from the book, which also led to the ending being completely different and left me with no idea how Allegiant is going to work. As soon as the woman finished saying "It's time to come and join us" the gates in the fence opened up and everyone started swarming towards the gates and leaving the city... I mean, what? How is that going to work with Allegiant since Evelyn took over everything in the book and no one was allowed to leave the city. It makes no sense and I have no idea how they're going to do Allegiant unless they've decided not to follow the book at all.

And then at the very end Evelyn shot Jeanine - she had it coming but I'm sad they took away Tori's big moment.

Overall, I wasn't much of a fan of the movie. It was better than Divergent, but still left me with a 'meh' feeling. Peter (Miles Teller) was the saving grace of the movie for me.

So, there you go! That's my thoughts on the Insurgent movie. I would have went a bit more in-depth about the plot but the review just kept getting longer, and longer, and I didn't want it to get overly long! So if there's something I've missed, let me know in the comments and we can talk about it there!
Also, let me know what you thought about the movie as a whole.