The Divergent Series: Allegiant is the third film in the Divergent franchise based off the book series by Veronica Roth. The film is directed by Robert Schwentke and stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, and Zoe Kravitz. This film, which is Part 1 of the 2 part finale, whereas the next film which is gonna be called “Descendant”, takes place shortly after Insurgent, which ended in Tris (Shailene Woodley) finding a message from someone telling them to go beyond the wall which separates Chicago from the outside world. However, Chicago is the middle of a civil war, and the entire city is going crazy, people are fighting, and dying. Given this, Tris and her pals Four (Theo James), Christina (Zoe Kravitz), her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), and Peter (Miles Teller) decide to head over the wall and find out what’s out there. Once they get out there, they discover that Chicago and the faction system was an experiment conducted by an organization called The Bureau of Genetic Welfare, and they soon discover that these guys are not friendly.
The Divergent Series is not very well received. Critics rip these movie apart. I get it, I get why a lot of people like to rip these movies and the books to shreds, but, one thing that should be understood right off the bat by everyone is that, these movies are for teenagers. The target audience for both the books and the films is for people aged 13-17. Should they try and make these movies entertaining for people older than that? Yes, they should, but, again, these movies are not for adults, they are not for kids, they are for teenagers. I am a teenager, so, yeah, I did enjoy this movie. One thing that I could tell about this film, as well as the last two, is that all of these movies, this one being no exception, are very teen-y. The way it’s written, the way it’s directed even, the costumes, it’s very teen-y. So, I get why people aged 18+, all those professional film critics that prefer artsy dialogue driven dramas like to rip movies like this to shreds. But, again, I did enjoy this film. I think the number thing I enjoy about these films is the world. I enjoy the world of these movies, and it’s an interesting world to visit, and the past two films, and this one too, to make me want to see the next one to see where the story goes from wherever the last one left off. I do find the world of this series to be fascinating. It’s not an amazing universe, it’s not Star Wars or Mass Effect or anything, but it’s an interesting sci-fi world.
I did enjoy the story of this film, about discovering what’s beyond the wall, figuring out the sinister plots of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare. Jeff Daniel’s character was definitely weird and a bit creepy. It was interesting to see that plot and to see how it all turned up. And I liked the aspect where the whole city of Chicago was at war and people were fighting and killing each other in the city. That was an aspect I like, I always like plots in stories where an entire area of a place is just going crazy and at war. It’s a story trope that I like to see in fiction.
Though, this movie’s pacing was really stretched out a bit, and you could tell that it was due to the fact that they are trying to stretch it out to make the book be into a two part movie, which is something I don’t like. Especially since we have to wait until June 2017 until the next one, that is, if it gets made given the low box office numbers on this one (more on that later), so, while Act I and Act III of the film was eventful and had action, Act II where Tris and pals spent time at the Bureau was a bit slow. When I see critics call the film a “snooze-fest” I assume they are talking about Act II. Whereas the film was never boring, the interest did go down a bit during the middle of it. Another thing is that the movie had a lot of really fake looking shots. There was a couple of shots in here that you could really tell they were standing in front of a green screen. There’s a shot in the beginning of the movie where it’s Miles Teller’s character just standing somewhere, and you could see the green screen haze around him. Also, some of the CGI shots looked pretty fake here. Some of the CGI looked ok, but others, not so much. Also, the action in here was very PG-13y. It was like, people get shot, and they just fall over, no blood, that’s it. Some of the action seemed fake, and it was a bit stupid looking when they used slo-mo shots at times. Though, the hand to hand fights were cool. The fight choreography in here is good. They were better than the gun fight scenes.
One thing that I did like about this movie, and the last two, was the costume design. A lot of the people in here wear these weird outfits. Not over the top weird like The Hunger Games, but, it’s outfits that you could really expect teens 50-100 years from now in the future to wear. It’s hard to describe, but if you’ve seen it you know what I mean.
Overall, while this review isn’t the longest, I did enjoy this movie, and I do hope that they wind up making the next one. Though, as you may’ve seen in headlines, this movie has been a bit of a bomb at the box office, coming in at 2nd place and only getting about $29 Million in it’s opening weekend. So, this movie has been a bit of a flop, and rumors are already circulating that Lionsgate is going to can the next movie and just leave this series like this. I REALLY hope they don’t, because they can’t just kill it when there’s one more movie left. Despite the low box office, I hope they go forward with Part 2, “Descendant.” Though, I think this is a perfect example as to why you should never split a final book in a trilogy into a two part movie. The fact that Allegiant bombed, Part 2 might not get made, and that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 was the lowest grossing movie in that franchise shows that if you split a movie into two parts, you are gonna get franchise fatigue, which is what happened with The Hunger Games and Divergent.
Overall, I enjoyed The Divergent Series: Allegiant. I enjoy the world of these films, I like the characters enough, and I am interested in seeing where it goes next, if we get to see another one at all. The film’s pacing is a bit overstretched due to the whole Part 1 Part 2 thing, the film does follow some cliches, the action in here was a bit weird, and the film had some bad looking green screen and CGI shots, but overall, while this movie wasn’t anything amazing or movie of the year, I enjoyed it, I had fun with it, and despite the low box office numbers, I REALLY hope Lionsgate goes forward with making the next one, just so we get one more and we get to see how it ends. But, we’ll see. I will give this movie a…
7.5/10
Jack Kroll- Film, Video Game, and TV Discussion 