3) Insurgent (March 20th)
Often known as “The one that’s like Hunger Games, but not as good” or “Is that the one where the kids go batshit crazy and kill each other?”, the Insurgent franchise has long stood in the shadow of Jennifer Lawrence’s blockbuster series, both in book and movie form. For those who need clarification, Insurgent takes place in a dystopian future where people are divided into separate factions based on their personality traits. As to be expected, protagonist Beatrice Prior is unique among her peers and can’t be slotted into any one particular group, leading to her inevitable entanglement with rebel forces.
Despite an impressive starring turn from up and coming actress Shailene Woodley, Divergent was disappointing on numerous levels, but that won’t stop Hollywood from milking the young adult book series for all it’s worth. The sequel, Insurgent, basically picks up where the previous film left off, following Tris and Four on the run in the wake of the uprising.
There’s always a chance that Insurgent may buck the typical sequel trend and actually improve on its predecessor, but if this doesn’t happen, then audiences will unfortunately have to endure plenty more sequels as the third book has unsurprisingly been split into two separate movies. This is also bad news for Kate Winslet, an incredibly talented actress who made the incredibly dumb decision to sign on to this average franchise.
As you read this, Winslet is praying that a dystopian future will happen for real in order to pull out of her contract. Genuinely. That’s how much she resents this series.