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Parents' Guide to

The Divergent Series: Insurgent

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Dystopian sequel ups romance factor; still very violent.

Movie PG-13 2015 119 minutes
The Divergent Series: Insurgent Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 12+

Based on 14 parent reviews

age 11+

The Divergent Series: Insurgent

The Divergent Series: Insurgent is a 2015 science-fiction film. This (in my opinion) is better than the previous instalment, Divergent. This has more violence than Divergent and is definitely not appropriate for kids. This is mainly because of an implied sex scene. My Classification: M - Adult Themes, Some Coarse Language, Some Violence, A Sex Scene
age 11+

Could be better.

This movie was more related to the book than Divergent was I only found three differences between the book and the movie .

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (14 ):
Kids say (71 ):

Book purists will certainly have a lot of material to bemoan about this sequel. For every positive element that's true to the story (we finally meet Uriah, played by Aussie hunk Keiynan Lonsdale; Winslet and Watts are fabulous as leaders with very different views of the Factions; and Teller steals his scenes as opportunistic, sarcastic Peter), there too many underwhelming, underplayed, and divergent (pardon the pun) bits from the original story. Even given the expectation that an adaptation will sometimes dramatically change the elements that jump from page to screen, the Insurgent filmmakers made some head-scratching choices that don't bode well for the future of the franchise.

What is still engaging about the series is the strength of Woodley's acting, the intense appeal of James as Four (their chemistry is debatable, but it's still more believable than Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson's in the Hunger Games films), and the veteran actors all doing their best with a series that isn't connecting as seamlessly on the screen as it did on the page. During a few scenes, Woodley fans may marvel (and laugh) at seeing her interact with James, Teller, and Elgort -- all of whom she's had romantic relationships with in movies. The visuals and simulations in this film are also even more dazzling than the ones in Divergent. It will be interesting to see how the screenwriter and director handle the plot and perspective changes of Roth's highly divisive final book, Allegiant, for the last two movies.

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