Insurgent heats up theaters

On March 20, the futuristic, post-apocalyptic, dystopian society returns in the second installment of the thrilling, action-packed Divergent Trilogy: Insurgent.

The movie begins three days after the previous movie in the nightmare of Divergent, Dauntless member Beatrice “Tris” Prior (Shailene Woodley). Tris, Tobias “Four” Eaton (Theo James), Caleb Prior (Ansel Elgort) and Peter (Miles Teller) hide out in Amity, one of the five factions. While laying low, they plan their next move to bring down Erudite leader Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet). However, before they can gather the information needed, Dauntless members, under the control of Jeanine, enter the compound in search of Divergents.

Being a science fiction adventure film, Insurgent keeps the atmosphere of a city plunged into a civil war, overwhelmed by the constant Erudite attacks and searches. It also portrays each faction well, with key elements such as Amity being the farmers and those who are devoted to peace and forgiveness to Candor, who strive for honesty. These aspects portray the setting and characters in Veronica Roth’s novel excellently, even though Roth wrote the books earlier in the storyline.

Even though the movie stays true to the ambiance, it fails in the plot. In the novel, the story revolves around Jeanine trying to eliminate the Divergent population; however, in the movie, she tries to open a box left behind by the first to live in the city. While this gives the movie a new perspective, it completely deviates from the actual story. Even though the novel has less action, the plot of the movie failed to show character development, like Tris being able to come to terms with a friend she killed, and adding made-up events which didn’t help the storyline.

Also, key scenes in the book were kept out of the movie, whereas these parts in the novel played a crucial part in the plot. These changes bring in more action but are not very effective in helping viewers understand the story.

From the varying storyline to important elements being kept out, Insurgent is a movie that is sure to impress those who have not read the book more than those who are fans of the series. The movie completely alters the storyline as an excuse to add more action so that more teens will go see it. In the end Insurgent is not a movie worth paying to see.