When it comes to being the leading character in a movie based on a successful book series there are a couple of things that help. Either you have a boy with a lighting bolt scar on his head or you get a good actress who is in the mist of becoming a superstar (and shoots a bow and arrow). Since the boy who lived had his success, every one has been looking to catch that lighting in a bottle again (pun intended). The difference from that series and the new trend is to have a female lead picture. “Twilight” did it first and because of it we now think vampires sparkle. We then had a series about a game where kids were chosen for a challenge of the fittest and they kill each off until one survives. Finally we get a story about a girl who doesn’t fit in, and it has nothing to do with High School, but a society that places its people in fractions. These stories have a couple things in common, they are all written by female writers and they picked the right actress to play their heroine.
The last time we had left Tris (Shailene Woodley) she and Four (Theo Jones) thought they had stopped Jeanine (Kate Winslet) and her evil plan. Well they were wrong, because if they had we wouldn’t have this film now would we? Tris and Four have been hiding with one of the other fractions, along with Peter (Miles Teller) and Caleb (Ansel Elgort). After getting discovered they escape only to encounter a group of fractionless who are not too happy to see them, but after Four tells them his real name, they lead them to someone who is looking for them. Soon Tris must make a decision if revenge is more important then saving everyone she loves.
Not wanting to name the book series that shall not be named, I do think it is fair to compare this series to the other popular series out right now. While both stories deal with the separating of people for the good of the society, and both have strong heroines, one does stand out above the other. The story for the Divergent series , or at least the first two just seem to make better movies. While Woodley and Lawrence are both on the elevator to superstardom, because of the source material, Woodley has a leg up on being a female bad ass. Not wanting to rest on what it has done already, “Insurgent” deploys a new creative team, using Director Robert Schwentke (Red) and writers Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman, and Mark Bomback, who all once again adapt from Veronica Roth’s novel. While “Insurgent” is not going to be winning any major awards anytime soon, it still is a entertaining movie, and with two decent films already under its belt, the only question is can they end as good as they started? The good news is just like every other film like this, they will get two chances as they break up the final story into two parts. With this film “Divergent” fans will rejoice and regular movie fans will enjoy, and that my friends is all you can ask for.
Brian Taylor
