Insurgent

Insurgent – or to use its full, clumsy title The Divergent Series: Insurgent – pulls off the rather neat trick of feeling both completely predictable and seeming as if it was made up as it went along. This second instalment in the screen adaptation of author Veronica Roth’s bestselling series of dystopian novels isn’t a total dud – it’s handsomely made, and the overqualified cast appear to be hitting their marks and reciting their lines correctly – but it somehow feels redundant. 

There is, of course, room in the marketplace for more than one YA series set in a future bereft of freedom and hope where only one tough yet uncertain young woman can liberate the masses and light the way ahead. But the Hunger Games franchise has done such a bang-up job so far that Divergent and now Insurgent feel like they’re trailing behind, trying valiantly to keep pace but falling critically short.

A re-watch of Divergent is advised if you do intend to check out Insurgent – the new film doesn’t provide much in the way of ‘Previously in The Divergent Series...’ What you need to know is that Tris (Shailene Woodley), who possesses five personality traits in a world where most people are restricted to only one, is on the run from the authorities led by chilly bureaucrat Jeanine (Kate Winslet). But eventually it’s time for Tris and her comrades, including badass boyfriend Four (Theo James) and don’t-trust-him douchebag Peter (Miles Teller, the only one having any fun or injecting any life into the proceedings), to take the fight to Jeanine. Is Tris up to it?

Well, there’s at least one more book in the saga (and in keeping with Hollywood’s latest tradition, Allegiant is gonna be split into two films), so there’s one clue. Tris’ cause is certainly worth fighting for: whether it’s worth lining up for at the box office is another matter entirely.