There’s something more than a little bit grim about the “Divergent” series of books and movies.
“Insurgent,” the second entry in the young adult adventure franchise, is once again set in a factionalized dystopia where people are ruthlessly divided according to their class, and just as ruthlessly ruled by the system’s fearsome leader and enforcer, Jeanine Matthews (an icy, underused Kate Winslet).
It’s gloomy and totalitarian, and practically everyone involved seems moody and morose, like high school seniors forced to attend class during spring break.
There’s no freedom inside the faction system, just a world of unending requirements and expectations, including, it seems, wearing aggressively choreographed outfits designed to signal which type of person you are. Some wear tracksuits in high-tech materials to show that they are physical and potentially violent. Others dress in gently flowing cloth in earth tones to show that they are not. Either way, everyone looks like a participant in some massive troop of boy-band backup dancers.
Even the factionless, who reject the class system, seem to take their cues from a lead designer, albeit one whose tastes run to a kind of Mad Max biker chic: oversized coats, slim-fitting T-shirts, chunky boots and funky hairstyles. Most of the factionless are young and attractive, and they live in a darkened concrete lair with exposed piping and lots of missing walls. Carefully decorated with a hodgepodge, quasi-gothic style that resembles an Urban Outfitters crossed with a Hot Topic, it looks rather like an urban loft.
As the camera wandered through their deconstructed, open-plan space, revealing its post-industrial eccentricities, I couldn’t help but wonder: Who are these people, who have rejected the system that defines their world? What drives them? Motivates them? Also: Where do they get their clothes? How do they find so much time to work out? And who is their interior decorator?
The tone is set by the series star, Shailene Woodley, who sports a short, spiky, punk-rock hairdo and what appears to be a permanent look of pouty insubordination.
Miss Woodley plays Tris Prior, who in the lingo of this particular dystopia, is a “divergent.” She doesn’t fit into any of the predetermined categories. She’s different, unique and special, just like every outcast adolescent — which to say, every adolescent — feels they truly are at heart.
That, of course, is why she is determined to destroy the system. Tris is joined in her quest by Tobias (Theo James), a violent lad with excellent stubble who does double duty as action hero and arm candy; Peter, whose convenient turns of motivation are papered over by another smart performance from Miles Teller; and Andrew (Tony Goldwyn), whose dull presence can be explained only by the fact that he is Tris’ father.
Perhaps the grimmest thing about this sequel, however, is how rote it feels. The Divergent series runs strictly by the playbook established in “The Hunger Games” and its sequels: the strong but moody heroine, the smoldering male love interest, the dystopian future, the totalitarian system that doubles as a metaphor for adolescent struggle.
But the Divergent films lack both the narrative strength of “The Hunger Games” and the large cast of fascinating character actors that helped make the supporting characters so interesting. Most of all, the Divergent films lack Jennifer Lawrence, who not only carried The Hunger Games franchise, but seemed genuinely burdened by the dystopian injustice of her world.
Miss Woodley, in contrast, projects no such sensibility, and thus cannot compensate for the story’s lack of originality. The movie’s bleak revolutionary spirit, then, feels like an artfully designed con — all it really wants to do is fit in.
TITLE: “Insurgent”
CREDITS: Directed by Robert Schwentke; screenplay by Brian Duffield and Akiva Goldsman
RATING: PG-13 for violence, some sexuality
RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes
Please read our comment policy before commenting.