# Insurgent 3D - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=50793[/img] 
*Title: Insurgent 3D* 

*Movie:* :3stars:
*Video:* :4.5stars:
*3D:* :3stars:
*Audio:* :5stars: 
*Extras:* :4stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*87




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=50801[/img]*Summary*
Media is awash with young adult entertainment these days. I can’t turn my head without finding my wife’s nose in another trilogy, or another book being adapted for the big screen. Many of them blend together in one long blur as you notice the repetitiveness of them all. Dystopian future, teens/young adults need to find a way to break free from an apocalypse of terror where evil adults are trying to control their minds, spirits, wills or just plain existence. Rinse, repeat a dozen times. All I can say is, thank goodness we’re out of the sparkly vampire phase. I’ll take these dystopian futures any day over another moment of Edward and Bella mooning over each other. Also, thank everything you can think of that they didn’t create the spinoff series about Jacob and his clan, or we’d still be stuck in that era! The “Divergent” series has stood itself apart from the mix of repetition by being just a little better than the rest. It, unfortunately, doesn’t rise to the same level as “The Hunger Games” series, but it does a solid job at being entertaining. “Insurgent” is just a hair worse than divergent, suffering from the main downside to movies that are PLANNED trilogies (or in this case, known because there are 3 books). It acts as a bridging mechanism between the expositions of the first movie, and the big hyped up finale of the third entry, thus leaving it kind of light on any real depth due to the fact that it’s just there to tie the beginning and end movie together. 

Last time we saw Four (Theo James) and Beatrice Potter (Shailene Woodley), they were on the run from the psychotic leader of the factions, Jeanine (Kate Winslet) and even on the run from their own faction, dauntless. Hiding out with the surviving dauntless members in Abnegation, Beatrice and Four are wondering what to do next when the choice is taken from them. Finding their location by sweeping, Dauntless, under the control of Jeanine, hunts them down and sends them once more into a full tilt run for survival. Going from the frying pan and into the fire, our heroes are thrust once more into an uncomfortable situation as they come face to face with the factionless, a group of underground freedom fighters made up of divergent and outcast people alike. While we had the shock of Four’s dad being the Ex leader of Amity and the old president as well, we find out that Four’s long though dead mother, Evelyn (Naomi Watts), is their leader. Pressed with becoming a leader and symbol for the freedom fighters (much like “The Hunger Games”), Beatrice is faced with the impossible choice. Fight the good fight, or become a pawn for someone else’s game.

Thanks to some nasty injected tech from Jeanine during their last encounter, Beatrice is blackmailed into giving herself up to the ice queen in order for Jeanine to conduct an experiment on an ancient device that holds an incredible secret that Beatrice’s parents gave their lives to keep out of her grasp. It seems the device requires a divergent to run, as the person who is being tested (much like the tests of the first movie) needs to pass the test for ALL the faction types. Something a regular person wouldn’t be able to do. Agreeing to do this for Jeanine in trade for the lives of her compatriots, Beatrice begins the task and soon finds out that the secret Jeanine is craving, may be a bitter pill to swallow. 

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=50809[/img]
One of the main downfalls of these sequels is way too much time rehashing what went before it. Thankfully “Insurgent” has the good sense to hit the ground running with a great action scene and fully expecting you to know what happened in the movie before it instead of slowing down the plot with needless exposition. The initial first act of the movie was better than all of “Divergent” before it, with some great action as Jai Courtney’s jerk of a character hunts them down. The action scene in the train with the factionless was one of the highlights of the entire film, and for a PG-13 young adult film felt BRUTAL. The blood isn’t shown of course, but some of the deaths had me raising and eyebrow as the ante was raised and the methods were definitely one where you don’t walk away from. Then it started to dip with the doldrums that happen when you’re filling in time until the third movie. The truth serum section was fairly meaningless and the only real explanation it gave was that they now had a whole army to pull from with the factionless if they needed to and to give some more emotional times for Beatrice and Christina (Zoe Kravitz). 

The ending is really where I started rolling my eyes though, as you can obviously tell things were cut from the book. The double betrayal by a certain main character felt awkward and out of left field, and I confirmed with my wife that there was a lot more explanation on that change in the novel, something which the movie only made happen in a few minutes. As much as she’s popular, I just can’t see the appeal of Shailene Woodley. Theo James is all hunky and what not, giving off that stoic hero sort of vibe and is certainly passable, but Shailene is NOT an actor that I find that good. She had one good movie with “The Fault in our Stars” and suddenly she’s thrust in the spotlight. It didn’t help that the cropped hair she had for the movie looked AWFUL on her and the rasping sobbing she does the whole movie gets really irritating, really fast. The saving performances are actually by the veterans. Winslet is fantastic as the ego maniacal and just pure EVIL Jeanine. Playing her character up with such a wonderful level of tact that you sort of feel sorry for her for a few moments, but then just LOATHE her with every fiber of your being the next. Naomi Watts just can’t turn in a bad performance, and even though she’s given limited screen time, here performance as Evelyn is believable and very comfortable. I can’t say that I disliked “Insurgent”, but some of the cheesy moments drew me out of the story and had me liking “Divergent” just a little more, even though there was lot less action in freshman film.

One thing that I am REALLY glad about, is that the movies made enough for them to film “Allegiant” (which is actually being split up into two parts just like every other popular franchise these days to boost profits), which is actually filming as we speak. This is something that was VERY annoying in the young adult genre, as many of these movies were inspired by a series of novels and ones that required you to read all of them to get the full story. With young adult films being made left and right, most of them didn’t profit enough to make a sequel ,and left viewers hanging, waiting for what comes next only to be disappointed. Here at least we get to see the series come to a proper end. 


*Rating:* 

Rated PG-13 for intense violence and action throughout, some sensuality, thematic elements and brief language 



*Video* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=50817[/img]“Insurgent’s” 2.40:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray presentation is a great one, and one that hovers just on the verge of being perfect. Colors are bright and warm, with very little color grading whatsoever (which is rather rare these days, especially for big budget blockbusters). The detail is astounding with close up shots, able to see ever little stray hair on Shailene’s cropped hairdo, and ever little line on Kate Winslet’s face (although she looks stunning for her age). Wide angle shots look almost as great as the close ups, with great fine detail and little to NO softness in the image. Black levels are inky black with tons of shadow resolution, but there is a problem with banding in the dark scenes. I know it was an issue with “Mocking Jay: Part 1”, but luckily it’s not as blatant. When you shift to dark, night time sequences, the banding can be noticed, but it doesn’t take over the whole screen like it did in “Mocking Jay’s” break out of Peeta. This is the ONLY thing in my opinion that kept this from a 5 star video rating, as “Insurgent’s” good qualities vastly outnumber this flaw. 




*3D* :3stars:
The 3D presentation of “Insurgent” is unfortunately a bit stilted. The image is quite good, with some solid use of layering at times, but the fact that the movie wasn’t filmed in 3D and was converted at the last minute is undeniable. There is a distinct lack of depth to the image and most pop out effects are of the more “standard” variety. Think of scenes like where Beatrice I leaping out of the glass window where she was being tested. Those kind of “oh yeah, seen those” type of effects. The image itself isn’t wildly darkened in the 3D conversion, which is a nice feature, and I did notice that the slightly darker image did accentuate the recognition of the banding, which kind of counterbalances the whole thing. 





*Audio* :5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=50825[/img]The audio, on the other hand, is just stunning. Being one of Dolby’s latest Atmos tracks, it was fine tuned for home theater and commercial theater’s alike to sound the best that it possibly could. The layers of immersion are incredible with highly detailed surround usage that pulls you in from the sides, and a rocking LFE track with nuanced and multi note bass lines. Gunshots can sound deep and weighty, while the rest of the track doesn’t feel overwhelmed with low end. The cacophony of the battle between Beatrice and dark Beatrice are incredible, with razor sharp accuracy and a fantastic sense of directionality. Dialog is crisp and clean, with a wide range of play amongst the main speakers, and some great dynamic balance with the rest of the effects. Those of you without Atmos setups will have to make do with the 7.1 Dolby TrueHD core, but that is nothing to sneeze at here. 









*Extras* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=50833[/img]
• Audio Commentary with Producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher
• "Insurgent" Unlocked: The Ultimate Behind-the-Scenes Access
• From "Divergent" to "Insurgent"
• The Others: Cast and Characters
• Anatomy of a Scene: The Train Fight 
• The Peter Hayes Story 
• Divergent: Adapting "Insurgent" to the Screen
• Marketing Gallery




*Overall:* :4.5stars:

“Insurgent” isn’t going to break ground in the Young Adult genre. It’s not “Maze Runner” or “Hunger Games”, but it is in no way as bad as “Mortal Instruments” or “Twilight” either. Stuck firmly in the middle it gives a reasonably entertaining experience for those who enjoy this genre of film, and certainly is head and shoulders over much of the drek put out today in that particular subset of media. The disc itself has some FANTASTIC audio and video scores, with a great array of extras. One of the best displays of extras that I’ve seen in a new release in quite some time. The 3D is a bit middling, but I have to say, the price difference on release week is only $2 difference between the 2D and 3D, so if you’re even mildly interested in the 3D I would go for it. Not only does the 3D pack include the 3D disc, but a DVD version as well, something the 2D release is lacking. Good for a rental


*Additional Information:*

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort
Director: Robert Schwentke
Written By: Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsmith
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos, English DD 2.0, Spanish DD 5.1
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 119 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 4th, 2015



*Buy Insurgent 3D Combo Pack Blu-ray on Amazon*
*Buy Insurgent Blu-ray on Amazon*



*Recommendation: Worth Checking Out​*







More about Mike


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

Thanks for the review. My wife read the books out of curiosity, but just haven't gotten around to seeing this one. The audio score may make it the reason I rent or pick this one up. We enjoyed the first one well enough, but the genre is getting a bit tired and overdone, so we were not in any rush to see Insurgent.


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## bkeeler10 (Mar 26, 2008)

Thanks Mike for the great review. That's what I was hoping to hear about the soundtrack! I'll be watching this sometime this week hopefully, and look forward to the audio part in particular. Wish I had Atmos already, but I'm confident it will be great in 7.1, regardless.


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

Rented this one last night and I want to know why studios are stripping rental copies of the full movie experience is beyond me... Taking away extras is somewhat understandable, but their continuingly increasing practice of putting lossy audio tracks on discs is frustrating to no end. Still, I am glad that I only rented this because while I enjoyed the first one well enough, but this one just seemed to drag on and on. Before we watched the movie, I asked my wife how the books were and her response was, “The first one was good, then the second and third one were . Hopefully the movies will prove to be different.” Definitely not the case, in our experience. I was glad that it was over and am even more glad that I didn’t purchase this one. I don’t see myself watching this one ever again even to fully experience the amazing audio. Now I don’t even know if I care to finish out the 3rd chapter with the next two (ugh!) movies.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

Jon Liu said:


> Rented this one last night and I want to know why studios are stripping rental copies of the full movie experience is beyond me... Taking away extras is somewhat understandable, but their continuingly increasing practice of putting lossy audio tracks on discs is frustrating to no end. Still, I am glad that I only rented this because while I enjoyed the first one well enough, but this one just seemed to drag on and on. Before we watched the movie, I asked my wife how the books were and her response was, “The first one was good, then the second and third one were . Hopefully the movies will prove to be different.” Definitely not the case, in our experience. I was glad that it was over and am even more glad that I didn’t purchase this one. I don’t see myself watching this one ever again even to fully experience the amazing audio. Now I don’t even know if I care to finish out the 3rd chapter with the next two (ugh!) movies.


basically, Lionsgate is famous for this, strip the lossless audio and extras to make it fit on a cheaper BD-25 instead of a BD-50... it's rather frustrating


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## bkeeler10 (Mar 26, 2008)

Jon Liu said:


> Rented this one last night and I want to know why studios are stripping rental copies of the full movie experience is beyond me... Taking away extras is somewhat understandable, but their continuingly increasing practice of putting lossy audio tracks on discs is frustrating to no end.


Yes it is frustrating. I have fallen for this too before. Out of curiosity, where did you rent this? I hear Redbox and Netflix discs from Lionsgate are this way, but sometimes a local video rental shop might not be. Hard to believe that the cost difference between BD25 and BD50 justifies creating a whole new package. I had always assumed that these things were done to underhandedly encourage people to buy the disc rather than rent. Maybe they do it for both reasons.

Anyway, I am planning on renting this tomorrow evening from a local rental shop. I will be calling them beforehand to have them check their copy for Atmos.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

bkeeler10 said:


> Yes it is frustrating. I have fallen for this too before. Out of curiosity, where did you rent this? I hear Redbox and Netflix discs from Lionsgate are this way, but sometimes a local video rental shop might not be. *Hard to believe that the cost difference between BD25 and BD50 justifies creating a whole new package. I had always assumed that these things were done to underhandedly encourage people to buy the disc rather than rent. Maybe they do it for both reasons.*
> 
> Anyway, I am planning on renting this tomorrow evening from a local rental shop. I will be calling them beforehand to have them check their copy for Atmos.


It is for both. an incentive to buy rather than rent, and to save money by going with a single layer disc...but the cost differential is still double the cost for a BD-50 to replicate


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

bkeeler, I rented from Redbox. The mom and pop rental places usually have better luck because they usually get the retail copies, at least from my experience.

I didn't know that it was still double the cost to reproduce a BD50 over a BD25. That makes more sense then...


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## bkeeler10 (Mar 26, 2008)

Just an update. I watched this last night and we really liked it quite a bit. We rented it from a local video rental shop that's been around forever, and their copy had Atmos on it , so not a stripped-down copy. I will wholeheartedly agree will Mike that the audio on this movie was really good. Some really deep bass too. Made me happy!


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

bkeeler10 said:


> Just an update. I watched this last night and we really liked it quite a bit. We rented it from a local video rental shop that's been around forever, and their copy had Atmos on it , so not a stripped-down copy. I will wholeheartedly agree will Mike that the audio on this movie was really good. Some really deep bass too. Made me happy!


I've actually really been been impressed with how Atmos tracks handlle gunshots. they seem to carry a distinct "signature" to them vs, the one not sound of gunshots in so many other movies


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## bkeeler10 (Mar 26, 2008)

I have noticed in general that Atmos soundtracks played back on 7.1 systems are more agressive in the surrounds and have more seamless pans all around. I don't know if this is coincidence or even if it is just in my head. And this is based on just three movies (Transformers: AoE, Mockingjay Part 1, and Insurgent, all tent pole blockbusters). Who knows, but that's what I've noticed.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

bkeeler10 said:


> I have noticed in general that Atmos soundtracks played back on 7.1 systems are more agressive in the surrounds and have more seamless pans all around. I don't know if this is coincidence or even if it is just in my head. And this is based on just three movies (Transformers: AoE, Mockingjay Part 1, and Insurgent, all tent pole blockbusters). Who knows, but that's what I've noticed.


my suspicion is that they are basically fine tuning the tracks to be creme de la creme "showstoppers". playing them back via Atmos settings gives the same results too, very strong surrounds and aggressive directionality. I thinks it's a case of them putting their very best foot forward to wow the first time listeners.


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

Man, all this talk about Atmos. I want to upgrade to it, but I am just not in the position to be able to add 4 more speakers to the mix (plus pay for another pre/pro with Atmos and DTS X). The only pre/pro I would consider is the Marantz 8802, but I just don't want to spend $3K on it, then buy 4 additional speakers... and somehow figure out how to mount them in my "temporary (couple more years)" place.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

Jon Liu said:


> Man, all this talk about Atmos. I want to upgrade to it, but I am just not in the position to be able to add 4 more speakers to the mix (plus pay for another pre/pro with Atmos and DTS X). The only pre/pro I would consider is the Marantz 8802, but I just don't want to spend $3K on it, then buy 4 additional speakers... and somehow figure out how to mount them in my "temporary (couple more years)" place.


yeah, I'm waiting for a good receiver to come out that doesn't cost my first born child to get. then I'm all in. I've got the speakers lined up for overheads, just need the receiver/pre-pro


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## bkeeler10 (Mar 26, 2008)

This is turning into an Atmos thread haha . . .

But it looks like Anthem will be introducing two new MRX receivers, probably at CEDIA this year, with Atmos and DTS:X. The MRX720 (11-channel processing with 7 amplifiers on board) and the MRX1120 (11-channel processing and 11 amps on board). Just in case you like Anthem. Didn't expect them to do this until next fall.


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

Talk about costing an arm and a leg, Mike! Bryan's post on Anthem's new offering might just break the bank!

Bryan, you're in Woods Cross, huh? A friend of mine is nearby in West Bountiful and my brother is in Cottonwood Heights. I'm trying to convince my wife to move to that area, but she doesn't like the winters there. She did her time at BYU and that was enough for her.


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## bkeeler10 (Mar 26, 2008)

Jon Liu said:


> Talk about costing an arm and a leg, Mike! Bryan's post on Anthem's new offering might just break the bank!
> 
> Bryan, you're in Woods Cross, huh? A friend of mine is nearby in West Bountiful and my brother is in Cottonwood Heights. I'm trying to convince my wife to move to that area, but she doesn't like the winters there. She did her time at BYU and that was enough for her.


Lots of channels ain't cheap, apparently. Licensing costs, DSP power, additional DACs and analog stages, and on it goes . . . :spend:

I graduated from BYU as well. I love the snow, so wouldn't want to live somewhere without winter. But the inversion during the wintertime is no fun. Anyway, if you ever move out this way we should hook up. I could use some audio buddies. :wave:


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