Overall, I would say Insurgent met my expectations.

Insurgent is the second movie in the Divergent series. If you saw the first movie, Divergent, then you could probably predict what happens in this movie.

The film (119 minutes, rated PG-13) was basically like The Hunger Games and The Giver. The same plot line –a utopian society with a character who sees its flaws and rebels – has been used so many times and made this movie fairly predictable.

At the beginning, Tris, played by Shailene Woodley,  starts to lose her identity. Because of her rebellion in Divergent, she sees herself differently and cuts her hair to symbolize her struggle against the society.

In addition to having to watch the dramatic hair scene, movie-goers have to bear with repetitive parts that make the film drag. The protagonists almost get caught by the antagonists and then barely escape over and over again. It almost makes you wish Tris would just get caught so the movie would end.

Unlike similar movies noted above, the fight against the antagonists seems to be really drawn out and filled with a bunch of random violent scenes. You don’t really see Tris and her allies building up and preparing for the climax of the movie.

However, the ending was pretty good. It wasn’t a surprise to me how the movie ended, but I really enjoyed the final scene.

Without giving too much away, it leaves you with a cliff hanger, and if you are like me and haven’t read the books, you are glad it ends there. I have no desire to see the third movie, and I think the whole series should have just ended here.

Series author Veronica Roth and director Robert Schwentke should have just left the audience questioning what happens next. Dragging us into the third installment is going to ruin the series.

If they wanted make it a better series, they should have made the books and movies more detailed in the beginning instead of dragging the ending out. I think they jumped right into the problem instead of letting the anticipation build.

Even with these flaws, this is still a decent movie if you like these kinds of movies. But, because of the violence and graphic scenes, I’d almost like to call it a Hunger Games for men.

3 starsI