Insurgent (2014)

"Hey look a rainbow. I love this place. Pathological friendliness..."go with happiness". -Peter

Here's a link to my first review of divergent.

http://donttakewhatisayseriously.blogspot.com/2014/06/divergent-2014.html

I liked it.

So I went into Insurgent with very mild expectations of quality. My mistake.  I should learn, but I don't.

Insurgent was not the pleasant surprise that its forebear was. It was as if the creators decided that in order to make the film different and better they had to take out all of the content that made Divergent pretty good and put in explosions and hallucinated dreamscapes.  Insurgent is most definitely not a bad movie....but is decidedly formulaic and lacks any of Divergent's sparkle. Oh and the giant flying box of turmoil like a super mario level and absurd.  

There are two other points that I want to bring up as relates to Insurgent: McGuffins and source material.

McGuffins:  A McGuffin is any desirable object serves as motivation for characters in a story. Examples include such things as The Case in Pulp Fiction or The One Ring. The McGuffin for Insurgent is honestly just a box.  It glows. It has immense power. It does nothing. I kinda laughed at the ridiculousness of this particular motivating object. Apparently, Kate Winslet just desperately wants to open the box. "Open the box, Kate!" Conveniently, the only way to open the box is our main character Tris...shocker.

Source material:
Upon viewing Divergent I commented that the idea seemed rehashed like Avatar and Battle Royal. On that thought I went ahead and read the book to see how accurate I was.  What I found is that while the books are simplistic, the story, set up and themes of the book are in fact vivid. This led me to be slightly ashamed for the movie.  How could one waste such vivid themes like forgiveness, compassion, empathy, sacrifice, and predestination? Now having seen part 2, there is no doubt that the writing team wasted the noble efforts of the Author Veronica Roth to instill a greater debate among literate teens and possibly uplift her chosen genre from the depths of twilight induced schlock.  For shame producers and writers.  If you have a simple source with clear themes and emotionally connective writing, don't waste it.

On a scale of first person to fourth person narratives, I give Insurgent, 2.49 out of 5 stars.

天空の城ラピュタ [Castle in the Sky] 1986

"PAZUUUUUU" -Sheeta  (all the time.)

Castle in the Sky is great.  Nuff' said. Its plot and villain reveal are a little wonky...but whatever. I'm just going to move on and talk about some neat things I thought about while watching it this time.

I understand animators (ahem Disney and Hanna-Barbera) resuse animations, styles, and even ideas.  It is really easy and saves money.  I get it. Honestly, no harm no foul for me on that account.  However, I cannot break the serious connective tissue that links Castle in the Sky with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.  The robots are extremely similar. The little almost pikachus are in both films as well as undeniably linked environmental themes.  I do not necessarily subscribe to the theory that both movies are part of a joint universe.  But, I do believe the Hayao Miyazaki may have loved his creations from Nausicaa and borrowed liberally as animators and studios are want to do. It would be interesting if Nausicaa was in fact the post apocalyptic rebuilding of the world of Castle in the Sky possibly creating a circular narrative for mankind's relationship with the planet, but that would not add anything substantial to either film.

I think the most developed and complete character from Castle in the Sky is the pirate leader Dola.  Its like they decided to make a complete opposite to Sheeta.  She's the leader of air pirate gang that spouts truth like Captain Jack Sparrow and always has a cunning strategy. This time I noticed that Miyazaki deliberately draws parallels between the relationship between Sheeta & Pazu and Dola & her extremely mustachioed engineer of a husband. Is there a pirate side to every relationship that remains pure and honest?  I am not sure. Hayao Miyazkai seems to think that piracy is a "noble" pursuit.

Also, I just like the idea that Sheet ends up wearing Dola's pants with the comment. "You remind me of a young me."

On a scale of Neuschwanstein, to Bodiam, I give Castle in the Sky 3 out of 5 stars.