The Divergent Series: Insurgent

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, & Miles Teller

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I am a huge fan of the Divergent series, and after reading all the books, I went so far as to proclaim that parts of it were even better than the Hunger Games. Unlike The Hunger Games and the first film in the series, Insurgent starts to veer away from the novel, making it hard for the fans, to envision just how they'll make the jump into the third book in the series. In what was once Chicago, the war between the factions has begun, and this time, no faction is safe from the Erudite. The intellectual faction has started collecting all the Divergent, in an attempt to open a mysterious box, that supposedly contains something that will change all their lives forever. Tris and Four are on the other-side, doing everything they can to stop the group from hunting the Divergents, whom they see as the key to changing everything. The first part of this film is an excellent representation of the novel and is every bit as exhilarating, but the second part veers off into a new direction. The films producers said they wanted to make the story easier for the casual fan to understand, and they did that, unfortunately, taking away the complexity of the story, takes away some of it's magic. As for the ending, it is completely different from the novel, leaving many to wonder if they'll make the third book into a film at all. Indeed they plan to, but it's hard to see just how they will go about doing it, after the events put in place by the end of this film. Shailene Woodley and Theo James returned for the sequel and again, they played the characters to tee, I really felt like these two were meant to play Tris and Four before the book was even set to be released on the big screen. Once again, the special effects, the acting, and the story are amazing, and this film would be worthy of five stars, if not for the ending that diverted too far away from the original story.