The Divergent Series: Insurgent
Insurgent: Good, Bad or Indifferent
Welcome to post-apocalyptic Chicago! Where our harrowing star from Divergent, Tris (Shailene Woodley) is once again battling for her life as she tries to find out why she is so different from everyone else.
(Warning: you are entering spoiler territory!)
In a few short words, five days after the ending of Divergent we find our heroes Tris, Four, Peter and Caleb escaping to the Amity Compound. When Eric and his crew show up, Peter sells the rest of the gang out forcing them to once again go on the run to Factionless (which is the best name for a group ever!). Add in some explosions, plot holes that are so big they c an swallow the movie, kissing, teenage heart throb Ansel Elgort, everyone’s favorite story teller Octavia Spencer, sickening amounts of romance between Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley (seriously, can these two get married in real life already?!), an ending that can only be described as the biggest plot twist ever, and some adaptations from the book and you have got yourself: Insurgent.
However, the plot is not why I am here, since this movie is based off a post-apocalyptic situation and technology has advanced for some reason, we enter the world of CGI. One of the biggest brownie points this movie gets is it was a big step up from the CGI used in Divergent.
This was the best scene in the movie by the way ^
The tension and talking scenes in Insurgent were way more integrated, and the fight scenes fun to watch while being suspenseful. This is about all this movie had going for it though… There wasn’t anything particularly amazing about the backgrounds used or the special effects. In fact, the backgrounds were the things that made me want to jump out of a window, the characters are oddly placed against green screens and you can see where movements are not syncing up to movement of the background.
Can we talk about what is going on in this scene? ^ Because I cannot.
Characters are oddly placed and oddly moving. As if they do not know that they are walking against a simulation. Believe it or not, you KIND OF have to be trained in how to move with CGI software, guess who didn’t get the memo? Everyone in this move! –insert smiley face-. You get kind of tired watching glass break at every turn, which was the best spectacle of the movie. Overall, this movie looks rushed and cheap, the effects weren’t anything too special and the backgrounds used are out of place and just simply do not look right nor appealing to the eye. It is almost if these CGI creators have no real sense of geography or what looks right in a particular situation. Which is also sad because this is marketed to be an action movie, and there are more tracking shots than actual action that isn’t chalked up to running or falling out of windows for the 100th time. I understand this movie is marketed to the age range of 13- 20 years old and it does not take much to shock nor surprise todays’ youth, but for a movie with a budget of 110 million dollars (USD), they could have given me a bit better of a show. Everyone is a critic; I know right?
I mean come on! Look at this!! ^, she looks copied and pasted into a very badly lit background with a very awkward orange light on the actual prop used.
This movie is also shown in 3D and I honestly must advise against it. Within the first 20 minutes, you will have been blinded by the lens flare effect so much so that you have to close your eyes and readjust for a minute. To spring for the 3D would just be a waste of money, yes there is flying glass and bullets that look like they are coming right at you but… that is about it. If you can sit through hours of lens flare, an obviously copy and pasted background, glass that looks like it is coming at your eyes (which isn’t pleasant) and CLOSE UPS OF PEOPLES FACES, then please shoot for the stars… you will probably get further than where this movie is going.
My final verdict? Do not waste your time, you will get far more enjoyment reading the book and experiencing for yourself what this story is supposed to be about, instead of being sickened by the lack of effort put into making this film. If you simply must see it, get the cheapest ticket and kick back for the 2 hour run time. They have already broken the box office by raking in 297.3 million and honestly, I cannot see why, but slap 3D on anything and expect to make a buck.
-Kai Artis
