The Divergent Series: Allegiant Review
The Fanboy SEO reviews The Divergent Series: Allegiant starring Shailene Woodley and Theo James. Now Showing from Pioneer Films.
Synopsis:
Tris (Shailene Woodley) must escape with Four and journey beyond the wall that encloses Chicago. For the first time, they leave the only city and family they have ever known in order to find a peaceful solution. Once outside, they learn shocking new truths that render old discoveries meaningless. As the ruthless battle threatens humanity, Tris and Four quickly decide who to trust in order to survive. Tris must ultimately make impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice and love.
Trailer:
Right. So we’re doing the second-to-the-last movie for the Divergent franchise and while it looks great I noticed a few problems here and there. I wouldn’t say it ruined the experience but they definitely did something wrong amidst all the rights.
First let me talk about the visuals. There were times that the film’s CG was great and there were times that they looked really horrible. Then there were times that it felt somewhere in between. Like when you buy a juicy looking burger on the menu and it’s OK. I did love the little things like the camo they use as well as the drones that David’s army is wearing.
Acting wise I’d say they did a half-assed job. They already have Jeff Daniels (Newsroom) as David but that didn’t really turn out the way I expected. He was great as a calculating and cold mastermind but we all know he can do more and he does show that he can do more in the last few minutes of the film. As in literally, the closing moments of the movie is where he goes ballistic. Could’ve gotten some of that early on to be honest. Miles Teller was his usual wormy, weasel-ish self here so that’s good. The lack of screen appearance and snark however brought it down a few notches. Shailene Woodley aka Tris Prior’s performance here was a major letdown. I’m not sure whether its really her character thats used to death of important people or she was just doing bad acting.
Action scenes are intense but lacking; like how Mockingjay Part 1 suffered for lack of action scenes. Here are there we get punches and gunplay but I’d say it only gets around 25% of the overall screentime. There’s also a lack of romance/ YA scenes here. Allegiant just felt like a straight up sci-fi movie.
I will have to comment on what the cast looks these days. They’ve all matured and that maturity fit their roles just fine. It’s a double edge sword though as we kind of lose consistency in terms of story telling. It’ll be slightly weird to watch these guys and gals look really young and fresh in Divergent then see them all “grown up” by the time the fourth movie rolls out.
What else. Oh right, if there’s any redeeming factor about this movie, its that its trying to give audience a happy ending as possible. It’s up in the air whether or not they stick to the controversial ending for Veronica Roth’s Allegiant book but how things ended in this movie could be an indicator that they are scared of following the source material.
Speaking of the fourth movie, Ascendant, how this movie ends is quite a bit jarring especially if you read the book or you’ve familiarized yourself with the plot. But then again there is a fourth movie to close everything so this was only a hint of what’s to come later.
VERDICT:
Treat The Divergent Series: Allegiant as a spin-off or an alternate story. It falls a bit in terms of what Insurgent and Divergent set up but its a decent movie. I really do wish that the director for Ascendant, Lee Toland Krieger, gets his act straight and deliver us an action packed movie or at least a really likable YA sci-fi movie.
SCORE:
7/10
The Divergent Series: Allegiant is now showing and distributed locally by Pioneer Films
