The Divergent Series: Insurgent

*Warning: This post contains unmarked spoilers for the Divergent series. If you haven't yet read the books or watched the movies, I would strongly suggest that you skip this blog post. Seriously.
Or you can spoil it for yourself. I won't tell  you what to do.*

Good evening, internet! I recently had the chance to watch Insurgent, second movie in the Divergent series. And it was... interesting. There were a lot of good elements and a lot of elements that could've been better, and I have to say: rarely do I see a movie and have a list of pros and cons all lined up in my head half an hour later.

And so, I give you: my review of Insurgent. 

***

Good/Favorite Parts:

• The plot was very solid. There was plenty of action and a well-defined storyline, plus a very solid emotional arc for Tris. Her guilt and, I think, PTSD over killing Will translated well from the book to the movie, and the culmination of her arc--in which she finally confronts and forgives herself--followed naturally from her progression throughout the movie. (Of course, the movie deviated from the book's plot in several areas: I'll talk about that in the Negative section.)
• I just have to say, the scenery and cinematography in this movie were breathtaking. From the burnt-out shells of Chicago buildings to the Amity farmlands to the factionless headquarters, all of the sets were beautifully constructed and really moved the story along. There were also several helicopter shots, particularly at the beginning of the movie, that were great to see. 
• The acting was good. Shailene Woodley is very good as Tris and she did an amazing job of portraying everything Tris goes through in this movie. (My personal favorite scenes were the truth serum trial and the final Amity simulation.) In my opinion, Shailene Woodley was the best of the cast, although they all did well.
• I simultaneously hated Peter and loved watching him. He does some despicable things and is completely unafraid to put himself before everyone else, but he also has some of the best lines in the film.

Bad/Negative Parts:

• While Insurgent was a good movie with a solid plot, as an adaptation it... left something to be desired. The writers simultaneously left out a lot of the book and added several new plot points. The result is a movie that has a lot of the book's minor points, but less of its overall plot. 
• The conflict between Tobias/Four and his father was completely excised from the book except for one scene, which was never followed up on. While I can see why it was left out, this would have been an interesting thing from the books to explore. 
• It's been a while since I read the book this movie is based on, but I do remember that there was no search for a mysterious box left by the founders. That particular addition by the scriptwriters worked, and served as a good framing device for several scenes from the book, but it felt... odd to have such a large change in plot from book to movie. 
• Several smaller details were also left out in the adaptation process, and while these aren't as important, they would have made the movie a bit more coherent. Mentioning Edith Prior's name during her message might have been a good move, and I feel like the level of conflict between Jeanine's forces and the factionless-Candor alliance wasn't emphasized the way it was the book. I'm not sure what the movie version of Allegiant is going to be like, but I can see it also being quite different from its book incarnation, at this rate. 
• This movie also seemed to have the sequel-movie-adaptation syndrome of, "This character was pretty minor in the first book so we didn't include them in the movie, but oops now they're important in the sequel so we're gonna shove them in and pretend they were there all along." Uriah definitely got this treatment, and Lynne and Marlene were also pretty hastily introduced. (Marlene's name was only mentioned after her death, and Lynne was never properly introduced at all.) Edward wasn't included at all that I could see, which leads me to my next point. 
• By my count, two disabled characters from the book were edited out in this movie. In the books, Johanna, Amity's spokeswoman, was blind in one eye; the character as played by Octavia Spencer had a visible scar on her face, but clearly had two functioning eyes. Edward was nowhere to be seen. (Which makes sense, seeing as he wasn't in the first movie at all, but it still rubs me the wrong way to see a familiar disabled character replaced by a random white kid we've never seen before.)
• I... didn't really like Naomi Watts as Evelyn Eaton. I have nothing against Naomi Watts, but she does not look the way I pictured Evelyn, and she played her as way more manipulative than I ever saw Evelyn as. Maybe it's just me, but I would have preferred a different actress in that role. 

***

Conclusion:

There are a lot more negative points here than positive, but I really did like this movie. I liked the atmosphere of it, and the acting was good, and as far as book adaptations go it really could've been worse. So I'll give it three and a half stars out of five. 

***

To be honest, I have no idea when my next post is coming, or what it'll be about. At this point, your guess is as good as mine. (And, come to think of it, if there's anything you'd like me to blog on, the comments section is always open!)

Until next time; adiós!