Insurgent

The second film in the Divergent series, Insurgent picks up where Divergent left off, with Tris, Four, and co. on the run after Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet) ordered the attack that left Tris’s parents—and countless others—dead. This time around, Jeanine finds a mysterious box that she’s sure contains information that will prove to the world that Divergents should be eliminated. But knowing that only a Divergent can open it, orders all Divergents be hunted.

Release Date: March 20, 2015 Runtime: 119 minutes

A good chunk of Divergent revolved around acquainting the viewer with its world-building—and good world-building, too—so this time around the film is able to spend less time on introducing us to the faction system, serums, and the rules of this dystopian society in favor of more action and plot points. Unfortunately, Insurgent also expects us to be acquainted with the characters. As a result, there’s not any particularly large growth in any of the characters aside from Tris and Peter, making the film’s action feel—though exciting—rather empty since we don’t have a big enough reason to be invested in the characters involved except for those given in Divergent.

This lack of character depth also trickles down to the film’s supporting roles. Despite boasting an A-list cast (including Octavia Spencer as Amity leader Johanna Reyes, Naomi Watts as Four’s mother Evelyn, and Daniel Dae Kim as Candor leader Jack Kang), most of the film’s new additions aren’t given much to do, including those from Divergent whose only purpose with their few minutes of screen time seems to be to remind viewers, Hey, remember us from Divergent? We’re still here! Even the deaths of several characters, scenes that should have a large impact on the characters and audience, are rushed and anticlimactic.

Though the characters aren’t as developed as they could’ve (and probably should’ve) been, Shailene Woodley gives another great performance as Tris Prior. Most of the emotional beats of Insurgent revolve around Tris and her experiences, and she doesn’t disappoint. Miles Teller is also great as Peter, stealing every scene he’s in and injecting the film with sarcastic humor that really adds to his character.

In a welcome change, Insurgent hugely reduces the amount of romance that was present in both the book and last film. In its place are more action sequences and it’s exciting to watch…at first. Before long, scenes of running, shooting, and hand-to-hand combat grow tiresome as the film falls into the formula of characters running from Jeanine, getting into more trouble, and waiting to be saved. However, the special effects are pretty good (including the simulations) and the inclusion of the mysterious box that Jeanine is so dead-set on opening is a clever and engaging way to streamline events of the novel into a more cinematic product.

In the end Insurgent, while entertaining, doesn’t reach the level of its predecessor. It trims a lot of the book’s fat, but character development is trimmed too, and most of the characters—both returning and new—are underdeveloped. It’s still fun to re-visit this unique world with its intriguing premise, characters, and visuals, and it makes for a great popcorn movie, but unfortunately suffers from middle-film syndrome, a bridge between the first and last. Here’s hoping that the next one, Allegiant, is better.

7/10

The Lazarus Effect

The Lazarus Effect deals with the possibility of bringing people back from the dead, but the true power of the film lies in its manipulation of time. At a slim 83 minutes, there’s no excuse for it not to be a taut, suspenseful horror-thriller. Even if it forsakes character development for scares (which it does), a fast-paced film is to be expected. And yet, at 83 minutes, the mystery still stands: how does it feel like it’s so much longer?

Release Date: February 27, 2015 Runtime: 83 minutes

A slow build-up is understandable but it moves at such a slow pace that it becomes a waiting game for the certain hell to break loss. It also doesn’t help that, for the most part, the characters are uninteresting. Though the film tries to trick us into thinking we’re seeing something original by casting actors not traditionally known for their work in the horror genre, they’re all playing the same genre stereotypes that we’re seen before. There’s Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass as scientist couple Zoe and Frank (she believes in the afterlife, he doesn’t), Donald Glover as Niko (the token black character who’s in love with Zoe), Evan Peters as Clay (the stoner), and Sarah Bolger as Ava (the innocent student recording everything). Since they have little development aside from Zoe, it’s evident almost immediately that the film is already plotting their demises.

When the film begins, Frank and Zoe’s team are working on a serum to prolong the period of time that someone can be brought back to life in medical emergencies. They try it with animals first (dogs and pigs) and it works, but something’s not completely right with the dog they bring back. It’s not eating, and swings back and forth from periods of strange blankness and crazy aggression straight out of Cujo. However, before they can figure out why, someone leaks information about their work and their research is confiscated. But that doesn’t stop them. They return to the lab at night to duplicate the experiment. Of course, it doesn’t go as planned. One lab accident later, and it’s not long before they decide on a human trail—by necessity this time, not curiosity.

I’m a sucker for films that deal with the idea of bringing the dead back to life (Pet Sematary and Flatliners is what Lazarus is being compared to, and it’s not completely off the mark), so the fact that it drops the ball on mostly all levels of suspense with a topic that’s such a well of opportunity is particularly disappointing. Films like The Lazarus Effect aren’t heavy, Oscar-bait dramas and part of the fun lays in sitting back and enjoying the wild ride of insanity, chaos, and moral dilemmas that surface from the characters’ actions. But because the plot points and scares are so predictable, a good portion of the fun is sucked right out of the movie.

Not to mention that it’s embarrassingly PG-13. Rather than attempting to make the most of its rating, it doesn’t even try to push the limit beyond flickering lights and jump scares. It doesn’t seem to be catered to the teenaged horror audience like most recent horror endeavors (which is promising), but it’s disappointing because it could’ve been so much better. Instead of focusing on the moral implications of the concept and crafting tension and suspense, Lazarus devolves into a film more concerned with racking up the body count than presenting a decent plot.

The idea behind the film is exciting, the acting is decent (thanks mostly to Wilde and Duplass), and there’s some skillful editing and still shots towards the end that amps up a sense of tension and mystery, but in the end it’s a case of much too little, too late.

6/10