Insurgent Movie Review and Discussion (Spoilers)

Insurgent was a disappointment. It was enjoyable to watch but after I thought about it, I realized how much I didn't like it. I'd give Insurgent an 8/10 as a movie but a 6/10 as a book-to-movie adaptation.

My first problem was that the movie was really disjointed. It didn't flow well and was very cluttered. The script wasn't very good either. A lot of the dialogue was awkward and uncharacteristic. I expected to love Four and Tris as I did in the book, however, in the movie Peter was my favorite character, someone I loathed and despised in the book. I enjoyed the humor he added but it was much too uncharacteristic.

Shailene and Ansel's acting was on point. The acting overall was great. It was the script and directing that ruined the movie for me. Too many liberties were taken and the story was changed drastically. In the movie, there was a never a box, Tris just underwent experiments. Many minor, but important, characters were taken out or overshadowed. For example, I was so excited when I heard that Uriah was cast for Insurgent. I had loved him in the book but he had about 3 lines and then just died in the movie. Marlene had no lines, but when she died in the movie, the audience is supposed to feel sad. Christina had a much bigger role in the book. Her conflict and anger towards Tris was supposed to isolate her. Tris showed no real regret for killing Will and her PTSD was overshadowed. Tori, again, had about 2 lines and served no purpose. She was supposed to kill Jeanine, not Four's mom-sister. On that note, the actress chosen to play Evelyn was a terrible choice. Her acting was great, but she looks much too young to play Four's mother. When Evelyn came back into play, it was supposed to be a big deal. Not just "oh yeah, btw my mom's actually alive."

Another thing that really bothered me was the head-massager-face-scanning-things. You can't tell what a person's faction is by scanning their face. Factions are a choice, not something genetic. And no one is just 10% divergent. Either you're divergent or you're not.

If I hadn't read the books, I'm sure I would have really liked the movie. However, being a big fan of the series, this movie ruined the book. I was really frustrated and while I enjoyed watching it in the theater with my friends, it probably won't be as good the second time.

Thanks for reading!
Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'