'Insurgent' gets poor reviews 鈥� will the next movies be better?
The movie starring Shailene Woodley isn't doing well with critics so far. Like many other movie adaptations of young adult series, the final book in the trilogy, 'Allegiant,' is being split into two movies. That may mean even worse reviews are ahead for the films.
The movie starring Shailene Woodley isn't doing well with critics so far. Like many other movie adaptations of young adult series, the final book in the trilogy, 'Allegiant,' is being split into two movies. That may mean even worse reviews are ahead for the films.
The movie 鈥淚nsurgent,鈥� based on the second book in Veronica Roth鈥檚 dystopian young adult 鈥淒ivergent鈥� series, is being released on March 20 and is so far receiving tepid reviews.
鈥淚nsurgent鈥� currently holds a score of 43 out of 100 on the review aggregator website Metacritic. It鈥檚 actually only a bit lower than the score currently held by the first film, 鈥淒ivergent,鈥� which has a score of 48, so neither have been well-reviewed.
Will the next movie in the series improve things? According to Deadline, the final book in Veronica Roth鈥檚 series, 鈥淎llegiant,鈥� is being split into two films. And if movie history is anything to go by, that may mean 鈥淎llegiant 鈥� Part 1鈥� will be even more poorly reviewed.
As noted by Monitor film critic Peter Rainer, conventional wisdom holds that for a movie series, creating a middle film is hard to do. 鈥淢ost middle movies in a trilogy simply mark time,鈥� he wrote in a 2013 review. So much of the action is often saved for a last installment that a second-to-last movie can be boring. Exceptions include the 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� second film 鈥淭he Empire Strikes Back鈥� and 鈥淭he Godfather: Part II.鈥� (Does the last one count if the third film came 16 years later and is widely regarded as not very good?)聽
However, with adaptations of young adult series, the problem seems to often lie with whatever the second-to-last movie in the series is. You see, those behind the 鈥淗arry Potter鈥� movies split the final seventh book, 鈥淗arry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,鈥� into two films. Other young adult series, from 鈥淭wilight鈥� to 鈥淭he Hunger Games,鈥� have followed suit. The 鈥淭wilight鈥� four-book series was adapted as five films and 鈥淗unger Games,鈥� a trilogy, is being adapted as four movies. As we noted previously, the 鈥淒ivergent鈥� trilogy is being adapted as four films, too.
So for many of these movie series, the second-to-last installments suffer the problems originally attributed to a second movie in that it seems like the movie鈥檚 plot is waiting for the action of the final film. 鈥淭he Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 鈥� Part 1,鈥� the second-to-last movie in the 鈥淭wilight鈥� series, has the second-lowest Metacritic score of all the 鈥淭wilight鈥� films (the second movie in the series, "New Moon," just beats it by one point). And the second-to-last 鈥淗unger Games鈥� movie, 鈥淭he Hunger Games: Mockingjay 鈥� Part 1,鈥� felt 鈥渓ike a massive placeholder for the grand finale,鈥� Rainer wrote in his movie review. He gave the movie a C, the lowest grade of any of the 鈥淕ames鈥� films so far. Even 鈥淧otter鈥� suffered from this. 鈥淒eathly Hallows 鈥� Part 1鈥� holds a 65 score on Metacritic, while 鈥淒eathly Hallows 鈥� Part 2,鈥� the final movie and the one that had 鈥� you guessed it 鈥� all the action, has a much better score of 87.聽
So maybe those behind 鈥淚nsurgent鈥� shouldn鈥檛 be worrying about the poor reviews 鈥� they should be hoping to avoid the trend of audiences being bored with their next movie, 鈥淎llegiant 鈥� Part 1.鈥�