'Insurgent' Spends More Time On Shailene Woodley And Characterisation
With the story set up in the first film, 'Divergent', the sequel, 'Insurgent', is able to focus on the action and character development.
Unless you had read the book, last year's hit 'Divergent' probably left you scratching your head about the story set in post-war Chicago, where people are segmented into factions according to their personalities (Dauntless, Candor, Amity, Erudite and Abnegation), plus the factionless rebels and multi-factioned divergents. Basically it all felt rather contrived, and director Neil Burger's movie had to spend too much time trying to explain how it worked.
Maggie Q and Shailene Woodley in 'Divergent'
Now we move into the second chapter, 'Insurgent', and director Robert Schwentke can just get on with the story, playing down the odd structure of this closed-off city. So it's a much more involving movie that centres on the characters themselves, weaving the action into their personal situations while building a much more urgent sense of suspense up to another cliff-hanger ending. This also lets the female-dominated cast members shine, including Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet and Naomi Watts, plus Octavia Spencer in a key cameo, and Ashley Judd in recurring flashbacks.
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