The Divergent Series: Allegiant Review

The Divergent Series: Allegiant

"We need to leave, RIGHT NOW!" -Four

      The Divergent Series: Allegiant is directed by Robert Schwentke (Insurgent, RED, R.I.P.D.) and stars Shailene Woodley as Tris, Theo James as Four, Jeff Daniels as David, Ansel Elgort as Caleb, Miles Teller as Peter, Naomi Watts as Evelyn, Octavia Spencer as Johanna, Zoë Kravitz as Christina, and Maggie Q as Tori.

Such a talented cast who all seem like they want out of this young adult film  adaptation world.

      As the 3rd installment of the dystopian YA (Young Adult) series, Allegiant is tells the continuing story of Tris, Four, and others during the aftermath of Allegiant's predecessor, Insurgent. The group of teens (Tris, Four, Christina, Tori, Peter, and Caleb) have to go beyond the mysterious wall around Chicago built before the chaos that became the present in The Divergent Series. They discover who is behind the structure of the wall, the secrets of why they are being kept away from the outside world, and who is faithful to humanity's true values and who isn't. All this happening while chaos runs it's course through Chicago's two communities that formed after Insurgent, the factionless and the former faction members.

Yup. You realized that too, Tris?

      Aside from the overabundance of Young Adult films that have come out in the past 5 years, I will say that each film in The Divergent Series has bigger ambitions than the last, in terms of how the story plays out. Unfortunately, the execution is not very well done. That isn't to say that the fans of these kinds of films and fans of The Divergent Series won't like Allegiant. They, more than anybody, will enjoy it more. I can really only say that Allegiant is not the worst YA film, or any film for that matter, I have seen. It's also sad to see that even the actors seemed like they were bored of another incredibly similar story, just seen in a slightly different angle. Here's the even sadder part; The studios, producers, and everyone else behind the making of The Divergent Series are dragging around this dead horse and making it into 4 parts.

Me trying to escape YA hell!

      To add on to its poor execution, Allegiant's predictability is a big factor as to how it fell very flat. There was no build-up of tension that genuinely I felt. In every scene where there was something blatantly set up for a major event or death, I said to myself, "I can probably guess that _____ is going to happe- yup. it happened." I'll admit that tension building can be a difficult feat to accomplish, especially in a series where tension from the previous film has to carry over, but almost everything that happened was not at all a surprise or a moment where I could be empathetic towards a character. There was a scene at the beginning of the film where someone pushes another character, who happens to be their friend/acquaintance, into a ditch and fires off screen to make it look like the character died, but it was pretty obvious that they didn't. The two characters that I somewhat cared for were Tris and Four. Luckily, these are the two main characters. Shailene Woodley has made major advances in her acting career and it shows here. Her performance as Tris definitely isn't award worthy or anything, but she did the best she could in a series and genre that's now a little played out.

And of course, this wouldn't be suited for young adults if it didn't have a love story of some sort. Well, it's still far more believable than...

Just go away. Sorry (but not sorry) to all of the Twilight fans.

       Allegiant falls into the genre of YA, but I wouldn't say that is technically a genre. I feel that the genre it would be categorized under would be science fiction. As with most sci-fi films, there should be a good amount special or practical effects surrounding the universe the film is taking place in and incorporated into the protagonist's journey. Allegiant does have the special effects in play, but the majority of them look plain bad. The effects, when used, were clearly green screened and not budgeted well. The silhouetted blur of characters in front of the green screen was shown plenty of times making the film as a whole a little tricky to take seriously. Still, some special effects looked more taken care of like guns shooting laser-like bullets and some of the destruction of buildings (although those are more practical effects than special effects).

 The most cringeworthy use of special effects in Allegiant was this blend of bad voice acting and special effects of a ship crash landing. 

      You're probably thinking that I sound very harsh and judgmental towards the young adult films that have come out in recent years, but I really do like some of them. The Harry Potter franchise, Hunger Games franchise, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower are great movies and all of them are YA films. However, Allegiant was not well executed like some of those films. It did have some promising moments of themes and its premise to make the story more 'grand', but it just loses its grip on both technicality and tension filled storytelling.

 2.0/5

PRO

• Interesting premise
• Shailene Woodley is good enough to save it 

CON

• Very predictable
• Poor use of CGI
• Another example of driving the young adult films into the ground
• Not a very original story; similar beats throughout

 

 

The Divergent Series: Allegiant is rated PG-13 for intense violence and action, thematic elements, and some partial nudity

 

Click here to watch the trailer

 

The Divergent Series: Allegiant is in theaters everywhere now

 

      Thanks for reading my review, everybody! I really appreciate it. Please subscribe to my to my blog and follow me on Facebook here and Twitter here to get updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've seen The Divergent Series: Allegiant, comment and let me know what you think of it. Thanks again!