Thoughts On... The Insurgent Movie

It has been way too long since I've sat down to write a 'Thoughts On...' post. But never fear, I've found the perfect occasion to get back in the swing of it! You might remember I posted a Divergent Movie review almost a whole year ago now. I'm excited to announce that the next instalment in this series hit cinemas, so here's my thoughts on the Insurgent movie.

Now I have to admit, the trailer and video teasers set my expectations fairly low, but I decided to be a dedicated fangirl and see the movie on opening night anyway. The movie picked up where Divergent left off, with the factions deteriorating into a war sort of situation. The first thing that I noticed is that the stakes have raised heaps from the first movie. It's hard to remember the little initiates jumping off the train as we see them running and fighting through the already destroyed city.

The movie is more violent than I expected, with quite a few fight scenes that arise as they journey from faction to faction. That said, the violence is hilariously fake for the most part of the movie. 

This violence brings some great character development, particularly with Tris's brother Caleb. Caleb isn't Dauntless, and struggles with the ethics of hurting other people in order to protect himself. 

I thought this was a really human thing to add, and it made me really love Caleb as a character. The characters in Insurgent are very tricky though. Both Caleb and Peter seem to change sides throughout the movie. Now I've seen the movie and I still can't decide quite who their loyalty is with...

I should mention that the movie follows a rather different line to the book *book fans start a revolt* but but but - it works very well. The plot line has been simplified quite a bit but it makes the movie very easy to follow. A box is discovered that was being protected by Tris's parents. They realize it can only be opened by a Divergent, who they believe is Tris. 

A large part of the movie is Tris feeling responsible for the loss of her loved ones, and trying to forgive herself. We see Tris's character develop as she's forced to sort out her problems in order to open this box. 

In all the cutting and simplifying from the book to the movie, I noticed they had cut a rather crucial scene. This was of course, the scene where Tris is drugged by Amity and finds herself hilariously peaceful in the presence of Four. I was soooo looking forward to seeing that on screen and it wasn't included in the movie :(((( Sad fangirl. Very sad fangirl. 

Some other things worth mentioning are the special effects and the sets. There are some quite cool visual effects throughout the movie, my favourites being in the simulations Tris goes through. She sees Four, and moments later he breaks into little crystals and evaporates into the air. Pretty epic. I also loved the sets of the faction headquarters. Each one was beautiful, and reflected the views of the factions well. My favourite was the Amity set, which we see in the start of the movie. It was exactly how I imagined it, made of greenery and natural woods. 

Sorry not sorry for the ridiculously wordy post, I just love writing. I'm still learning how to balance the whole busy life blogging, but I'm getting there. If you've got anything you'd like to see here on Zola, hit me up in the comments! Have a great week all xo