There comes a point when all these YA books about dystopian futures and how a group of young people fight the big evil old people who have ruined the world. It doesn't help when they are all made into movies of similar themes while stretching trilogies into four parts to suck your pockets and patience dry. The newest adaptation of Veronica Roth's 2013 science fiction novel was written Noah Oppenheim, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage and Stephen Chbosky. Robert Schwentke who directed Insurgent, the second in the series is back at the helm trying to keep our attention on Beatrice's new adventure beyond the wall.
When we last seen Beatrice “Tris” Prior, she had defeated the evil Jeanine who was trying to destroy the threat of independent thinking. The populace living in the ruins of Chicago are divided into factions of Amity for peace, Candor for honesty, Abnegation for selflessness, Erudite for knowledge and Dauntless for bravery. Tris who tested equally for different factions is considered a “divergent” which is contrary to the strict guidelines of their society. She was a danger which is why in the last movie, Tris managed to upturn their world and destroy the divisions. Now, as her boyfriend Ford (Theo James) is helping leading the new council with his mom Evelyn (Naomi Watts). He's conflicted with Evelyn's direction, which is similar to Jeanine's strict control. Tris doesn't want to have anything to do with it and wants to explore the world outside of the wall. After liberating her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) for execution for treason, she sets off to leave with some friends. Except Evelyn gets wind of their plan and sets her security dogs after them.
There's chase scenes to catch the group over the radioactive ruins of the world that was, then they meet that world outside that is behind a stealth wall that hides the city of high minded scientific remnants of The Bureau of Genetic Modification run by David (Jeff Daniels). It takes a little to long for them to realize that all is not quite right. Soon Tris and gang are trying to save their world from a civil war, and the machinations of the Bureau and of course another mind control plot that involves making you forget your name. Needless to say there are way too many holes in the story. The characters seem to be sleep walking in their roles. Whole sections are unexplained. The technology is far advanced in the new world, but everyone just shrugs and gets over it. There's some gobbly gook about what the Bureau is doing and why they want Tris, but nobody stands still enough to ask the right questions. The prospect of another movie to end this will probably need a little of that memory wiping gas, so we can forget about Part 1.
(Review by reesa)
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