** Clearly, this is a movie review and there will be some spoilers **
Hey guys, we got to see Insurgent! Unfortunately, we weren’t together this time (thanks NYC premiere! BOO!) but we got to see it early none the less and we have thoughts.
Yup, that’s what we saw!
We put our thoughts together into an Insurgent movie review… for a fun lil game try and see if you can tell who thought what!
THE GOOD
Fast Forward Button
They sped up a lot of the SLOW parts of the story. Thank you, Summit/Lionsgate for only making us stay at Candor for exactly as long as we needed to. Spill their guts with some truth serum then get back to kicking ass and taking names! Thank you. This does however, leave out the emotional development Tris must go through as she comes to terms with killing her friend and best friend’s boyfriend and rebuilding that trust. But hey, maybe that’ll be explored in the TWO Allegiant films.
THIS
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This totally unjustified moment wherein Four and Tris have a little nakey make out (or maybe sex, who knows they cut away too quickly) sesh. Not that we need justification for this.
Shailene Woodley
Say what you want about the girl and her views on bra wearing, vaginal sunning and self water foraging, but the girl can act. So much of this film was Shai ugly crying and really letting her emotions go.
Theo James
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Shailene is the star of the show, but Theo does what Theo does best: acts well, almost like you don’t even notice him, and looks good doing it. Reviews always seem to forget to mention him. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing or bad for him, but he just does a consistantly good job that it’s almost not worth mentinoing. Also there is a scene with him and little kids. DIED.
The Storyline
The story brought in both the backstory and lore you need to know to understand the world of Divergent plus some new stuff that the writer’s took a bit of artistic liberty with. While, I wasn’t the biggest fan of “The Box” motif, I did like how they put more emphasis on the overall story and didn’t get mired down in some of the mundane, day to day stuff that the books sometimes fall prey to. A LOT. ALTHOUGH, I do worry with them bringing in stuff we don’t learn about till the Allegiant books, WHAT THE CRAP will they do to fill TWO Allegiant films? But that’s a post for another day.
The Set
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It was really fun seeing the other factions- ESPECIALLY Amity. It was like a hippie haven for Shailene on set, I bet! They eat together, do chores together, wear hippie clothes and grow their own food. I want to live there.
The Look
The movie LOOKED great. We saw it in 3D, which Bekah hates and Nikki totally hates too.
The Bad
The CGI
We all saw it… if you’re going to dangle Tris over the edge of a movie train you better darn well make sure her hair doesn’t have visible green screen around it. COME ON GUYS. You’re the studio who swallowed up the studio who brought us Chuckesme, we know you have a pack with the CGI devil and can make shit happen. Don’t punk out on us now.
Overkill on the CGI
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Maybe it was the 3D but did so much stuff have to break? It was just… a bit much. There are tons of sims to go into because of the story, so it was necessary, but so.much.of.the.movie took place in them.
Caleb/Ansel running
We’re already suspending a lot of beliefs in this movie, it’s in a dystopian future after all, you can simulate seemingly real scenarios in which we can actually die in, we’re supposed to think Naomi Watts could be Theo James’ mom, we’re trusting the fate of the future to some 16-20 year olds… the least we can do it make sure their running looks somewhat believable. Ansel running away from the Dauntless at Amity was almost as coordinated at Robert Pattinson running in ANYTHING, EVER. The flailing and galloping made me LOL in the theater. Poor guy. Watch him come up with a fake reason for why he looks like a 2nd grader crossed with a freshly born fawn to MTV. RIGHT, Ansel… RIGHT.
All score… no cues
So… where was all the cool music Summit/Lionsgate films have been known for? Where was the Flightless Bird? Where was the Supermassive Blackhole Sun? Where was the Hanging Tree? Where was the entire Warm Bodies soundtrack?! Now, I’m not saying the movies needed to be wall to wall music like some of the last Twilight films but something as badass and action-packed as Insurgent NEEDED some music to get you moving.
Kinda Boring
The movie was good. The acting was good. The story was good, but I kept thinking “Is this almost over?” I couldn’t remember Insurgent the book much because so much had changed, so I didn’t remember when it stopped, so I was just lost. Have I been here for an hour? Has it been 3? I had no idea. And that’s not a positive thing.
The Ending
Wait, WHAT? We won’t spoil it, but Insurgent ends differently in its movie form. I’m not a book to movie purist. I believe that movie makers need to take liberties to tell the story best on screen, but…… they are setting up Allegiant to be MUCH different than the book. And since we have 2 more movies to go and Allegiant was a big ol’ POS maybe that’s not a bad thing…
OVERALL
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If you’re a fan of Divergent, you need to see Insurgent. It’s a great telling of the book (probably even better than the book) and sets us up for Allegiant. If you’re not a fan of Divergent, Insurgent isn’t going to make you one.
If you haven’t yet listened to us drilling DIVERGENT / THEO JAMES into your head and want to get started… start with the Books. Even though we hate the last book, we DO think they are good YA Dystopian reads!
Do you have your tickets yet?
Insurgent is in theaters March 20, 2015. TODAY!
