Entertainment

Film Review: ‘The Divergent Series: Insurgent’

Published

11 years ago

March 27, 2015

Oakland Post

Octavia Spencer in the sci-fi thriller “The Divergent Series: Insurgent.”

By Dwight Brown
Syndication Film Critic

(NNPA) – Up until now, The Divergent Series couldn’t hold a candle to The Hunger Games franchise, though they are both cut from the same cloth: teen girl hero, sci fi adventure, mean overlords and hunky boyfriends. The Divergent Series: Insurgent doesn’t change that dynamic much, but during its final minutes, it ups the visuals to a level that almost compensates for a weak beginning.

The rehash: The world, 200 years from now has been neatly divided into five classifications or “factions.” The “Divergent” group doesn’t neatly fit into any of the other sectors. They are hunted like deer by the very jealous Erudite faction, which is run by the evil Jeanine (Kate Winslet). The mean queen, who looks like she has swallowed a whole lemon, has confiscated a magic box with unknown powers. Evidently the only way to open it and reveal its treasures is to get a Divergent to go through a treacherous five-stage simulation, which often results in death at stage three.

Jeanine has sent her army out to capture the perfect victim. Meanwhile Tris (Shailene Woodley) and her man Four (Theo James), who are Divergents, are dodging the mean queen’s soldiers, led by Max (Mekhi Phifer). They try to talk other factions into joining them to overthrow Jeanine. Will they be successful?

The first half of this installment doesn’t bode well. The sets, feigning Chicago, look like Legos, the costumes look like hand-me-downs from a high school production of Les Miz and the cast seems bored.

Octavia Spencer plays Johanna, the leader of the peaceful faction Amity, where Tris, Four, her meek brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) and their duplicitous friend Peter (Miles Teller, Whiplash) have taken refuge. Johanna, as interpreted by Spencer, stares vacantly like a Charles Manson follower. Woodley has two emotions, cry and fight. And watching her fight grown men takes a huge leap of faith, as her arms are the size of pencils. Elgort is so wimpy you want him to join the Marines. And Teller is way too obviously untrustworthy; you wonder why the other three would trust him with their rent money, much less their lives.

As the film progresses, the chase scenes, action sequences and weak subplots—turns out Four has a missing mom (Naomi Watts) that he can’t trust—unload like debris falling off a slow moving truck. Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman and Mark Bomback’s ho-hum screenplay feels like it is leading nowhere. Robert Schwentke’s direction makes the fight scenes look over-choreographed and under his guidance the actors are about as animated as robots. For this installment, the writers and director are new. Which begs the question: “Why did the producers pick them?” They are not up to the task.

Fortunately for all concerned, director of photography Florian Ballhaus (The Book Thief) and production designer Alec Hammond (RED) have a deep bag of tricks, which they unleash in the last third of the movie. The visions they conjure are amazing. The decor in the closed glass room where the magic box sits and Divergents are tortured is sleek and artsy. The simulation sequences are mesmerizing to watch: Buildings disintegrate. People too. Tris is haunted by her mom and will do anything to save her; that spirit drives her to be courageous in unique ways. She swings from a rope attached to a burning cinder block room that inflames her mother as it floats in the air above an eerie city skyline. Nice image.

Yes, there is the silly adventure stuff and chest-heaving emotional romantic scenes for the teen girl audience. That’s the first act. The second act is only slightly better as plans for a revolution are made. The visually pleasing third act saves this movie from oblivion, as it progresses to a surprisingly fulfilling ending.

The Divergent Series still lacks the va-va-voom of The Hunger Games. But eventually, it may find its own cannon.

Visit NNPA Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.

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50 Years Later, ‘Wake Up Everybody!’ Still Resonates During Black Music

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

iStockphoto.

By Hazel Trice Edney, Special to The Post

Hazel Trice Edney

“Wake up, everybody, No more sleepin’ in bed

No more backward thinkin’. Time for thinkin’ ahead

The world has changed so very much from what it used to be.

There is so much hatred, war, and poverty.

“The world won’t get no better If we just let it be.

Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw.

The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah– just you and me.”

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

In a rare, nearly somber moment, the group’s celebrated lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass, introduced the song on Soul Train, the weekly dance and live performance TV show that aired roughly between 1971 and 2006. Pendergrass told the attentive live audience and thousands watching by television that Wake Up Everybody, the title tune of their most recent album, was intended to inspire people to take action with a goal to change America for the better.

“I’m sure that you will all agree that there are things that need to be done in this country today,” he said. “So, what I’d like for you to do is listen very carefully to see what you can do to lend a hand.”

The song’s appeal worked.

“I played that song over and over and over again because it was a constant warning to keep ourselves prepared for the society that we were living in,” says A. Peter Bailey, then a 37-year-old former aide to Malcolm X.

When “Wake Up Everybody” hit the airwaves, Bailey was working as an associate editor of Ebony Magazine. “It was a call to be aware of what we were dealing with in the country that we lived in, the world we lived in, the neighborhood we lived in, the cities that we lived in,” Bailey said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire.

He concluded that during Black Music Month 2026, such songs should be recalled and celebrated as a key to changes for the good across America; especially because such songs successfully encouraged people to deal with the issues that might otherwise denigrate the promises of America, including the promise that “All men are created equal,”as stated in the Declaration of Independence.

“The rhythms and blues expressed our joys, our sorrows and our fears,” Bailey recalls. “It was those songs and the singing of those songs by our people that attracted us to the campaigns for justice.”

With his life inspired by that song and others, Bailey, now 88, went on to establish and teach a Black Press class at Virginia Commonwealth University. Also, he has since written three books, including a memoir, “Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher,” in which he expounded upon successful principles of social justice, some of which are reflected in “Wake Up Everybody.”

Long before the term “woke” became associated with campaigns for justice, Pendergrass led the song that reverberated across America and still holds deep meaning.

The ‘wake up’ call exhorts teachers to ‘teach a new way,’ doctors to heal elders, and builders to ‘build a new land… we can do it if we all lend a hand.”

The song concludes:

“The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw. The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah – just you and me.”

Hazel Trice Edney wrote this story as part of a four-part series powered by AARP in commemoration of Black Music Month, June 2026.