STACK Magazine April 2015 Issue 126

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024 APRIL 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit REVIEWS CINEMA
I n the competitive arena of Young Adult
adaptations, some series live to fight
another day, while others die after
a single installment. To succeed, they
must possess the same non-conformist
stance as their protagonists, which can
be tricky given that popular YA fiction
largely conforms to an established
formula. Veronica Roth’s Divergent Series
has been tough enough to survive
for another chapter, and while 2014’s
Divergent ostensibly resembled The
Hunger Games, the trilogy significantly
diverges from comparisons to the
Suzanne Collins’ juggernaut with second
film, Insurgent.
The Divergent Series ’ post-apocalyptic
future is located within a fenced-off
Chicago, where society has been divided
into five factions according to human
virtues. But if you possess free will and
independent thought – like Tris (Shailene
Woodley) and Four (Theo James) – you’re
deemed ‘Divergent’ and a threat to the
status quo.
With the factions on the brink of civil
war at the end of Divergent, Insurgent
picks up with Tris and Four on the run
from power-mad Erudite leader Jeanine
(Kate Winslet), who has vowed to
eliminate the Divergents. The pair find
allies in the Factionless, led by Four’s
mother (Naomi Watts), and there’s also
the issue of a mysterious box containing
a message from the society’s founders,
which can only be opened by a pure
Divergent, making Tris’s capture a priority.
The middle film of a trilogy can
often be the weakest, but Roth has
bigger things in store in chapter three,
so Insurgent delivers both a satisfying
conclusion to the events of the first film
and sets up the third, Allegiant, which is
poised to take the story in a completely
new direction (and of course will be
divided into Part 1 & 2). Without the
need for set-up and exposition, Insurgent
is free to explore the nuances of its
class system and characters, as well
as advancing the narrative in new and
unexpected directions through propulsive
storytelling – which is what any good
sequel should do.
Shailene Woodley is no Jennifer
Lawrence but she invests Tris with guts
and a steely determination that belies
her wallflower look, and the scenes
in which she plunges into a series of
surreal VR simulations to unlock the
secret of the box are among the film’s
visual highlights.
So if you're hungry for another quality
YA film franchise, make sure it’s The
Divergent Series. Scott Hocking
The second chapter in Veronica Roth's Divergent Series significantly diverges from its Hunger Games-lite
predecessor, making this a YA franchise worth following.
INSURGENT RELEASED: March 19
DIRECTOR: Robert Schwentke
CAST: Shailene Woodley, Theo James,
Kate Winslet
RATING: M
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