This past weekend didn't start off to well for me. I contracted the ever deadly virus know to the world as Man Flu. I used the blu-ray player to its full capacity. I was searching through the growing collection number of blu-rays and found the first two films of the Alien franchise that I got for Christmas. I watched the original Alien a couple of years ago when I started to analyse cinema in more detail. It has so much historical value, not only for being the mother of sci-fi horror but for the strength and depth of their female characters, in particular Ellen Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver (I'll talk about her more in a min.) Her tenacity and courage over the male characters was very left-field and very much an unknown representation of women in films way back when. A rule breaker, a benchmark. Her character inspired a young James Cameron to create another iconic female of the cinematic universe, Sarah Connor in The Terminator. Her character arc from big haired blonde bimbo to eventually crushing Arnie's head with a hydraulic press was and still is pretty spectacular. An ordinary woman beating down and kicking ass was branded ridiculous by numerous pompous skeptics in the eighties. Guess what, it was brilliant. I'd say the ultimate female action hero for me is Ripley in Aliens, also directed Cameron. She's smart, physically and mentally stronger but also has a caring human side to her attempting to protect a young child from suffering the horrendous fate of the Aliens. The final scene where Ripley and the queen Alien face off and she's in the power loader battling away with her foe, it makes you want to get off your ass and start cheering at the TV. Bloody awesome. Great character, great film. It's fantastic to see more female action hero's in the big budget films. Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow easily went toe to toe with Tom Cruise in terms of physical acting, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Marvel's Cinematic Universe including the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron and not to forget Jessica Lawrence in The Hunger Games.
Insurgent is the second installment in The Divergent Series and stars Shailene Woodley as our female action hero. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, her society is broken up into various factions where they are surround by a wall, cut off from the rest of the world and beyond. However her character Tris does not belong to any set faction, in turn becoming a Divergent. This race of people is being hunted down by the almighty evil and sadistic Jeanine (Kate Winslet) who believes Divergents are dangerous and have no place in her ideal world. Tris and her friends plan to overthrow Jeanine at the helm so every faction can gain full control and gain some answers as to why they are separated. What is the underlying purpose of the faction system.
If you've not seen the first Divergent, you didn't particularly miss much. It wasn't a horrible film by any means but I've never watched it again. It was the epitome of rainy day film. It had enough entertainment to keep your brain engaged but it never shuffled your bum to the edge of the sofa. Watered down recycled storylines that have been tried and tested, a charismatic protagonist but side characters which were dictionary definitions, they had nothing about them. And to be honest, I can say the same for Insurgent.
Shailene Woodley proved once again she can hold her own as a female action star. She has layers of emotion and depth to her character which is beautifully portrayed in her performance. You care about her story, understanding the reasons for her decisions throughout the film. She has a charm that glows whenever she's on screen, a real sign of a talented performer. The director Robert Schwentke did an excellent job of creating the action scenes. They flowed simultaneously, choreographed expertly and filmed with no lazy quick cuts so you can actually witness some fighting without your head getting tormented. Tris and her boyfriend Four (Theo James) had reasonable chemistry that wasn't too cringe-worthy for an adapted young adult novel. I wasn't even annoyed by Jai Courtney, who reprises his role as head of security. Even if he was running around like a Terminator on steroids.
The nagging problems with Insurgent really is down to the basics. The producers of this film really wanted to throw in as many mini storylines to gain more back story to some of the side characters. Imagine creating a spider diagram with loads of ideas that come straight off the top of your head without thinking further about it. That's what happened to the plot of Insurgent. Interesting ideas on paper but no cohesive plan to merge all of them together. As a result the plot becomes a gigantic jumble with no valid explanation. This in return affects the side characters of the film. They're so cardboard cut out that you don't have a reason to care about any of them. Talents such as Naomi Watts and Miles Teller are completely wasted. They could have been Paul and Barry Chuckle and made no difference. Jeanine (Kate Winslet) is such a useless villain. Nothing about her character is menacing. She reminds me of a middle manager at work with a clipboard, pretending to be important and know what they're talking when really they haven't an f-in clue. I've seen scarier puppies. I think this boils down to the script. It's diabolical. The film makes a trip to the cliche factory and never leaves. You've heard it all before. Luckily it doesn't get delivered as cheese but it's curdling too much for my liking. Bare in mind the gentleman who wrote the script for this film wrote the screenplay for Batman and Robin........."Ice to see you Batmaaann!" (Facepalm).
I have my own conspiracy theory as to why The Divergent Series decided to get made in the first place. Lionsgate are the parent company who owns the series. Guess what else they own? The Hunger Games franchise. Funny how this film got released midway through the releases dates of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 & 2. It's a stop gap for fans to enjoy a slice of distopia that they've missed for 6 months. Both franchises are similar in story, have identical characters and are based around a similar time in history of Earth. This film is a warm up act to the main performance. They're there to gear you up for what is yet to come, something bigger and better (even though I believe this better than Mockingjay Part 1).
It seems like I've really been hard on Insurgent. It's not a terrible movie at all. However it's re-run of the previous installment. The stakes aren't raised and the plot is symmetrical. You don't have to be a bookie to predict what will happen during the run-time. Another young adult novel adaptation that tries to be complex but has too many fundamental issues at the core and as a consequence bites more off than it can chew. Nonetheless it's a solid family film which could easily be used to entertain the kids this Easter.
6/10
