Family Home Theater

Grade: B
Entire family: No
2015, 119 min., Color
Rated PG-13 for intense violence and action throughout, some sexuality, thematic elements and brief language
Summit Entertainment
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: English Dolby TrueHD Almos Mix
Includes: Blu-ray, Digital HD
Bonus features: B+ (four hours!)
Trailer
Amazon link

Some people seem to hate Divergent and Insurgent (the second installment in Veronica Roth’s Young Adult dystopian novels-come-to-film) because they’re not The Hunger Games. Or because they feel so structurally similar. My son hates them because he doesn’t think Shailene Woodley can carry a sci-fi action movie the way Jennifer Lawrence does in The Hunger Games. Then again, he’s a teenager, and it could be as simple as liking Lawrence that much more, or associating Woodley too much with a romantic weeper that he refused to watch: The Fault in Our Stars.

When I reviewed the Divergent Blu-ray a year ago I gave it a B because three out of four family members really enjoyed it, and I thought the film featured a nice balance of moral dilemmas and action packaged inside a relatively believable sci-fi world. Like the first film,  Insurgent was made for audiences, not critics, and the tone and pacing are similar,  with continuing characters and plenty of drama and action.

But this is a trilogy, and frankly we got most of the character development in the first film. In Divergent, Tris was faced with tough decisions, starting with which faction she should join and have to remain in for the rest of her life. Then there was her fight and constant struggle to make it through Dauntless training and keep her identity as a “divergent”—someone who has elements of several factions in her—a secret. To top it off, there was a developing romance between her and one of her superiors, and she seemed more complex that first outing because she was as fragile as she was tough.

Here she’s mostly tough, which means Tris really doesn’t grow as a character as much in this installment. What’s more, sci-fi fans might be disappointed that there’s less science fiction in Insurgent and more drama. Insurgent also pushes the main male character Tobias/Four (Theo James) slightly to the fringe while giving the oppressive Erudite leader (Kate Winslet) more screen time as she sends her Dauntless police in pursuit of the two Divergents. These are not bad things, especially if you consider that you’re watching the second act of a three-act extended screenplay.

You’ll need to have watched Divergent to appreciate or even understand what’s going on in this film. The action picks up just after Jeanine’s (Winslet’s) mind-controlled Dauntless obliterated Abnegation and she went on TV to blame divergents for the attack. So Tris and Four go on the run, first through factionless territory and then on to Candor. All the while they’re pursued by Dauntless traitors under the command of the sadistic Eric (Jai Courtney). Then there’s some hokum about a box that only a divergent can open, and that opens the door to criticism about the dystopian sci-fi elements. But if you don’t think too hard and just roll with the action, Insurgent makes for an enjoyable family movie night for households with teens. It’s rated PG-13, though, and deservedly so.

Language: A few “b” words and “a” words pop up, but nothing more. Pretty clean.
Sex: Nothing much, really. Just a kiss and a faux attack.
Violence: Punches and knives are thrown and there are some teen beatings and one suicide. The most traumatic might be semi-successful mass execution.
Adult situations: Some pursuit scenes might scare younger viewers.
Takeaway: Don’t listen to the naysayers. Divergent and Insurgent are decent dystopian sci-fi teen action movies that also hold appeal for viewers outside the target age range.

Grade: B+
Entire family: No
2014, 144 min., Color
Warner Bros.
Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence and frightening images
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1 widescreen
Featured audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Bonus features: B+
Trailer

The subtitle says it all. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is pretty much non-stop battle action, from an impressive opening sequence when the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) torches a city, until the converging armies battle and the final arrow is shot. So yes, this 144-minute film is rated PG-13 because of “extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence and frightening images.” There’s no sex, no bad language, and no adult situations to speak of, except for warfare.

The philosopher Bertrand Russell once remarked, “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” That wordplay aptly describes the third film in the Hobbit trilogy. With so much fighting and no build-up to speak of, the main suspense comes from seeing who will be the last ones standing and whether any major characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth will die.

Of course, if you can keep all the characters straight and remember who appears in The Lord of the Rings, you’ll have more emotional investment in what happens and have more of a clue, since the book that inspired the film series was written as a prequel. Given the three Lord of the Rings and three Hobbit films that Jackson has made, it’s strange to think that Tolkien’s books are considered classics of children’s literature. But when you read of battles, the violence is whatever a young reader can imagine. That’s not the case with film, hence the PG-13 rating.

For his last foray into Middle-earth, Jackson broke up a single book into three film installments, so the third film functions as a third act—meaning, unlike some trilogies or sequels, The Battle of the Five Armies will seem impossibly confusing to anyone who hasn’t seen (or remembered) the first two installments. It will seem like what it is: all climax and no plot development or complications. Yes, five armies are converging, but if you’re approaching this cold or have forgotten the first two films, what’s missing is why we should care. The only takeaway in this case is that old motivating force, greed—greed for power, greed for gold—and a genocidal undercurrent.  More

Grade: B+
Entire family: No
2014, 113 min., Color
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and intense sequences of sci-fi violence
20^th Century Fox
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Bonus features: B+
Trailer

The Maze Runner is the latest young adult post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel series to make it to the big screen. Directed by relative newcomer Wes Ball (Beginners), the film follows the journey of 16-year-old Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), who awakens in an elevator shaft that dumps him in the middle of a grassy field, surrounded by a gigantic stone maze. He’s not the only one, because other teenage boys have been deposited here, and none of them have any memory of who they were before the Maze—they only remember their names.

Like the boys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, they establish a society in which some people have authority and the rest function according to jobs that need to be done. They call their society the Glade, and what sets this film apart from others based on young adult sci-fi novels is that there isn’t a romantic interest. It’s all about the boys trying to explore and map The Maze with designated “runners” without jeopardizing their existence by angering whoever or whatever controls the ever-shifting, ever-changing maze.   More

Grade: B+
Entire family: Maybe; use your discretion
2014, 141 min., Color
Sony Pictures
Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action violence
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Bonus features: B
Trailer

If the previous Spider-Man trilogy and the new Amazing Spider-Man trilogy-in-progress (yes, a third installment has been announced for 2018 release) were tucked inside a time capsule with instructions for researchers to divide a test audience into two groups and show the trilogies one after the other, would their favorite depend on which one they see first? Maybe. Both trilogies are comparable blockbusters with slick special effects, charismatic casts, and airtight screenplays that follow the Marvel handbook pretty closely.

But there are some differences. In Sam Raimi’s 2002, 2004, and 2007 films, Tobey Maguire was a bit of a nerd as Peter Parker, and his superhero adventure played like a coming-of-age story. The series was campy, too, deliberately going for a playful tone to bring it in line with the comic book world.

That world has grown darker, though, and in the 2012 reboot from director Marc Webb, Andrew Garfield was a little edgier than the doe-eyed Maguire, more skate punk with attitude than an innocent teen, and in this new series Gwen’s father’s objections to him are more intense (and justifiably so). It’s the same in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

But darker or edgier doesn’t mean more less family-friendly. Both series are rated PG-13 and are similar in terms of appropriate content, and in this film there’s no nudity or sexual situations, very little in the way of language, and violence that’s mostly tied to spectacular effects or to the fantastic.   More