You know you’re in for a long haul when Kate Winslet’s clipboard-wielding Jeanine, leader of the Erudite faction, comes off less like a Hillary Clinton than a weary Applebee’s supervisor at the end of a 14-hour shift in this plodding sequel to “Divergent.”
With the notable exception of the gifted Shailene Woodley — who continues to give this increasingly pointless knockoff of the “Hunger Games’’ franchise better than it deserves as its cut-rate Katniss — practically everyone you’re watching seems to be wishing they were somewhere else. So you might want to take the hint.
“Insurgent” descends into a valley of ennui not generally reached until the penultimate film of a young-adult-novel series, where the studio is milking the final book for box-office hauls by splitting it into two films (as Summit will for “Allegiant,” the final chapter of Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” trilogy, in 2016 and 2017).
Possibly for budgetary reasons, “Insurgent” seems only mildly interested in the civil war that Woodley’s Tris is trying to launch in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, which for some reason is still surrounded by a giant electric fence separating it from what may be left of humanity.
While Tris and her hunky pal Four (Theo James, with whom she has zero chemistry) are trying to line up allies, Jeanine has been given a plot (not in Roth’s book) involving a five-sided box she is convinced (how?) contains 200-year-old message from “the founders” she believes (why?) will enable her to become capo di tutti capi of the five families, er, factions.
But Jeanine needs a special Divergent (an outcast with the attributes of all five factions) to open the box, and you really have to wonder why it takes someone as bright as Jeanine forever to figure out that only Tris has the moxie to survive the five virtual-reality simulations needed to accomplish this task (which may put some viewers to sleep).
When this occurs, in what feels like the film’s fourth hour, it provides an excuse to bring back Tris’ mom (Ashley Judd), who perished saving Tris the last time around. Tris, who still feels guilty about this, gets to return the favor — at least in the simulation — by trying to rescue Mom from a burning building that’s flying through the air.
There’s a surfeit of mother figures in “Insurgent,” which is much longer on heart-to-heart talks than action compared to its (slightly) superior predecessor, which was directed by Neil Burger instead of the more prosaic Robert Schwentke.
Besides the tantrum-throwing Jeanine, Naomi Watts makes her first appearance as Jeanine’s old rival and Four’s long-presumed-dead mother, Evelyn. “Do you do want to tuck him in, or shall I?’’ she hisses at Tris, referring to the petulant son who wants nothing to do with her but is at least theoretically doing the nasty with Tris.
I had to take off my 3-D glasses to make out the face of Octavia Spencer, picking up a paycheck as a schoolmarmish Amity leader who reluctantly provides sanctuary to Tris and Four. The film is very dimly lit (the better to disguise the less-than-great effects), and the further light loss in 3-D tends to swallow up its African-American characters, including a returning Zoë Kravitz in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her role.
Another new character (played by Daniel Dae Kim as a sort of extended “Star Trek” audition) is a Candor leader who conducts a game-show-like interrogation of our heroine and hero while they’re under the influence of truth serum. He and the audience repeatedly chant “Thank you for your Candor!,’’ which is funny. At least the first time.
There’s sarcasm aplenty from Miles Teller as the weaselly Peter, who gets a pistol pointed at his temples roughly once every 10 minutes. Judging by the expression on the “Whiplash” star’s face, he seems to be thinking, “Please pull the trigger and get me out of two more of these.”
“Insurgent” finally reaches a mind-bogglingly ridiculous climax. “I know this doesn’t make any sense,” says Tris. “But you have to trust me.” Don’t.