Confident, slick action sequel

Adapted from Veronica Roth’s bestselling trilogy, Insurgent is a slickly engineered sequel that moves the narrative along at pace.

Robert Schwentke’s actionpacked film crams its visual pyrotechnics into the climactic 30 minutes when Shailene Woodley’s heroine Tris must complete a series of tasks.

These trials include a visually stunning race against time to rescue Tris’ mother (Ashley Judd) from a burning building that rotates as it ascends to the heavens and fisticuffs between the heroine and her diabolical doppelganger.

Woodley accomplishes these gymnastic feats with aplomb, but it’s during the film’s quieter moments that she truly excels.

In particular, a scene of unburdening facilitated by a truth serum is a tour-de-force of raw, tear-stained emotion that bodes well for the concluding chapter Allegiance, which will be released in two parts a la The Hunger Games.

The second film opens with Tris (Woodley), her lover Four (Theo James), brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) and Dauntless traitor Peter (Miles Teller) ensconced in the pacifist enclave of Amity under the jurisdiction of Johanna (Octavia Spencer).

Tensions between Tris and Peter spill over just as the guntoting forces of Erudite led by Eric (Jai Courtney) gate-crash the bucolic idyll.

Peter betrays the fugitives but Tris, Four and Caleb escape and head for the only sanctuary l eft to them: the realm of the factionless under the control of Four’s conniving mother, Evelyn (Naomi Watts).

Although it lacks the sustained thrills of the first film, Insurgent confidently lays the groundwork for a fraught journey back to humanity.