Insurgent review: Divergent sequel is fuller, faster sci-fi

INSURGENT (M)
★★★½
All cinemas except Palace Electric

It barely feels like a few weeks since Divergent, the first in this series of films adapted from the teen novel series by Veronica Roth, hit our screens. This is an indication of how quickly Hollywood needs to turn out sequels to hit films these days to ensure they still have the fleeting attention of their Gen Y target market.

When we last saw our plucky heroine Tris (Shailene Woodley), she had found herself on the wrong side of the law in a future society where the world is separated into different castes at a young age.

Tris and boy-pal Four (Theo James) are "Divergents", whatever that means, and this time around they take on Jeanine (Kate Winslet), leader of their post-apocalyptic Chicago who, having subdued the caste known as "Erudite" wants to knock off the "Divergent" folk to keep society stable. Or something. These films can't be criticised for lack of plot or backstory.

Director Robert Schwentke takes over from Divergent's Neil Burger and his film is fuller and faster.

The special effects are as good as you would expect, and there is plenty of violence and with most of it shrugged off throughout, video-game styled and consequence-free.

Like listening to one of my step-kids reluctantly answer questions about how their day was, the young cast mumble and roll their eyes through their dialogue, looking enviably great and lacklustre at the same time.

Kate Winslet should play the villain more often. She's great, as is an unexpected Naomi Watts as a resistance fighter. Also good are the young male supports, Ansel Elgort (with whom Woodley starred in The Fault in our Stars) and Miles Teller.

The film owes much to the Wachowskis' Matrix films as Tris is identified as the chosen one by Jeanine, the only Divergent who can open some mysterious device, and like Neo gets a big 1970s-style headphone jacked into her. Cue some girl-on-girl fighting with Tris taking on the virtual world.

If Insurgent's producers actually wanted Woodley to face off against an adversary that would strike fear into the hearts of viewers, they'd have her post heartfelt questions about good local childcare or whether to immunise her children to the Canberra Mums Facebook page.

Oh, how the audience would flinch as those women would tear her a new one with their passive- aggressive responses like "Hey, public school, I like to feed my children organic food but that's only because I care about their future," or "Some of us mums have to work not sit at home all day and do nothing." Now that would be terrifying.