Movie review: The Divergent Series: Allegiant

With the revelations of Insurgent fresh in their minds and Chicago falling into chaos, Tris and Four escape the walled city. But their hopes are quickly destroyed when once again, the truth is not as expected and they realize humanity is once again on the brink.

Shailene Woodley (Tris), Theo James (Four), Naomi Watts (Evelyn), Octavia Spencer (Johanna), Jeff Daniels (David), Zoe Kravitz (Christina), Ansel Elgort (Caleb), Miles Teller (Peter), Bill Skarsgard (Matthew).

Based on the last book of the trilogy, Allegiant rides the tide of revelations from Insurgent prompting Tris and Four to leave Chicago for the wasteland in search of answers. The drama leading up to their departure made some sense however, outside the city things quit making sense quickly. Suspension of logic and consistency is necessary immediately as the story devolves. Apparently realizing there was no substance left, the storyline comes full circle leaving us with the feeling of being cheated out of a story.

Acting was reasonably well done with Woodley doing well as usual. James did nicely and is more enjoyable than Woodley in action scenes at this point. Watts was a bit intense but good, as were Teller and Skarsgard who both added nice depth. Daniels fit his role and along with the rest of the cast, filled this one out well.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were good but CGI was the focus in this one. It felt like there was hardly a scene without CGI which felt a bit over the top once the story moved out of Chicago. Action scenes were intense but again, extensively CGI. Dialogue felt a bit forced at times, as if there was excess energy being used to make points. Sound and soundtrack were decent.

While The Divergent Series movies have been enjoyable, Allegiant feels like it tries to take off in a new direction only to return to the original story once again. Fans of the series will probably either enjoy this one, or dislike it, depending on the desire for consistency with the books.

With some mild nudity, intense violence, and gore, this should actually be fine for teens and above.

Released: 2016
Reviewed: 1.12.17
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi Adventure, Sci-Fi Action, Sci-Fi Drama, Movies based on books

copyright ©2017 Dave Riedel