‘Insurgent’ makes smart divergents from the book (B)

The second film in a series poses challenges. You have to figure out how to bring fans up to speed without replaying the first part and decide whether you're even going to try to make it work for newcomers.

Director Robert Schwentke makes smart choices that can work for both groups in Insurgent, the second film adapted from Veronica Roth's popular Divergent trilogy.

Some fans may object to substantial plot alterations, but the rejiggering streamlines and intensifies the story as it powers to the same destination.

Others may feel a little Hunger Games fatigue about the vulnerable, young woman warrior who is the only one who can save her post-apocalyptic world from totalitarian forces.

Still, Shailene Woodley is an eloquent young actress, and her penetrating look at Tris' inner world makes for compelling viewing. The use of nightmares and simulations, sprinkled throughout the story, reflects Tris' ambivalence about herself as she struggles with guilt over whether there's something innate that causes the carnage around her.

As we learn from the first book and film, Tris lives in a world where everyone is separated into one of five factions: Erudite for the intellectuals, Candor for the honest, Abnegation for the selfless, Amity for the kind, Dauntless for the brave. She is one of the suspect few who overlap with more than one group, making her divergent.

In the books, divergence makes her dangerous to Jeanine, the leader of the Erudite, chillingly played in the films by Kate Winslet.

In this variation from the book, that also makes her Jeanine's desired tool as only someone who is divergent can open a box she stole that contains a record of their founders' true intentions.

Taking over for Neil Burger who directed the first film, Schwentke evokes a city with different looks for each faction, from rural Amity to futuristic Erudite and ravaged Dauntless. His focus, however, is less on physical surroundings than on Tris and the suggestion of twists yet to turn with Four and his mother, Evelyn, played by Naomi Watts as the secretive leader of the factionless who may have her own agenda.

Miles Teller provides the closest thing to comic relief as Peter, a peer with fluid allegiances, although he does veer close to breaking suspension of disbelief by lifting a questioning eyebrow at some of the characters' less than logical choices. Ansel Elgort fares less well as Tris' brother, Caleb, who comes off as unlikably opaque.

The film, however, belongs to Tris and her struggles with accepting herself. On that level it satisfies while opening the door to the third of the four films scheduled to complete the series.

INSURGENT (B)

Directed by Robert Schwentke. PG-13 (intense violence and action throughout, some sensuality, thematic elements and brief language). 110 mins. In wide release.