Insurgent *** (2015, Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Jai Courtney, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts) – Movie Review

Tough as nails but desperately troubled, Shailene Woodley is back as the Divergent (2014) heroine Tris in a future that separates people into factions – Abnegation for selflessness, Amity for the peaceful, Candour for the honest, Dauntless for the brave and Erudite for the clever. Tris is a dangerous mix of factions as a Divergent who must confront her inner demons while continue to fight the powerful alliance that threatens to tear her society apart with the help of her Divergent friends.

The movie has a compact, lower-budget look this time, mostly set in fairly cramped sets, with CGI-created big scenes intercut to make it look like an epic. There’s no real problem with the compact look, it’s an intimate story this time, mostly unfolding indoors and in Tris’s mind.

There’s lot of mother and daughter stuff in the story, which is important sign that the movie is directed at the huge audience of teenage girls and their mums, hitting the target with a hard-hitting actress inhabiting a feisty fighting heroine and lots of handsome men in aimless eye-candy support.

Playing Tris’s love interest Four and her brother Caleb, Theo James and Ansel Elgort are both good actors and so it’s a shame that, though they have plenty of screen time, they aren’t given much to do except look brave (James) or sulky (Elgort). The relationship between Tris and Four in the movie is perfect, giving James nothing to work on, while in the book it has its interesting ups and downs. Why would they dump that? It makes it all too simplistic. A bit of heated arguing, a bit of hot love-making, a bit of conflict – all this is needed.

Having a better time, Jai Courtney is back as the relentlessly evil Eric, while Miles Teller manages to enjoy the film’s few amusing lines as the shifty Peter. Jonny Weston is wasted as Edgar, and there’s nothing much Ray Stevenson (Marcus), Octavia Spencer (Johanna) or Mekhi Phifer (Max) can do with their thinly etched roles.

Kate Winslet has loads to do as the Big Brother (Sister?) role of Jeanine, the leader of the Erudite, who is making Tris and the Dauntless faction the fall guys for the attack she plotted last time. And she’s lots better than last time, in an anguished turn that transcends the lip-smacking villainess the character started out as and gives Winslet an actual acting schlep.

Watts matches her as James’s estranged mum Evelyn. The Winslet character is, by the way, a kind of messed-up bad mommy for Tris. Something weird’s going on here, not quite sure what its is, but Winslet and Watts are ready, willing and able to make the most of it.

I’ve got a feeling that Woodley – complete with her scary new short haircut – isn’t quite so interesting this time, but that’s how the part is written, and she does her best for it. She’s certainly no slouch in the kick-ass department.

As for Veronica Roth’s source story, her young adult novel series now in the second episode seems weaker than The Hunger Games series, and her best shot here is to have two major characters improbably swop sides and two major characters die. The element of surprise or even shock, disappears once you realise this is the author’s modus operandi. Once is OK, depending on how much you like the character, but you mustn’t repeat the trick, it starts to look desperate and suggests a lack of new ideas.

Taking over from Neil Burger, new director Robert Schwentke (known for RED, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Flightplan) brings Germanic efficiency and gloom to the project, turning in a relentlessly efficient and seamless movie that rather misses elements of individual personality and quirky charm.

The huge close-ups probably work well on a regular screen, but are quite off-putting on the IMAX 3D screen. With its dystopian view of the future, it’s quite grim, dark and violent, though the effects of the violence are not shown in order to maintain the 12 certificate.

Veronica Roth says: ‘I’m hearing a lot more calls for different types of heroes, not just the gay best friend but the gay hero, not just the black best friend but the black hero. People are clamouring for it a little more, and I think that’s a positive sign. It means that things will start to spread.’

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