The Divergent Series: Allegiant

The Divergent Series: Allegiant, 2016

Directed by Robert Schwentke, 121 minutes

Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Naomi Watts, Ansel Elgort, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Octavia Spencer

Review by Katherine Scheetz

No need to buckle your seatbelt for the penultimate installment of the Divergent Series, it moves slower than Peter (Teller) catches onto the fact he’s being used…again. Splitting a book that already has a scanty plot, Allegiant is another victim to the money-grabbers of Hollywood. Names like Jeff Daniels, Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Miles Teller and yes, even Shailene Woodley deserve better.

With the evil Jeanine (Kate Winslet) dead, Four’s (James) power-hungry mother, Evelyn (Watts) is in charge of a now factionless Chicago (for those just catching up the factions were Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation and Candor).

In the only scene that is marginally creative with panning aerial camera shots, Four and Tris (Woodley) lead a rogue group over the wall surrounding Chicago to find the people who turned them into an experiment, the big reveal that concluded the previous film. They are picked up by the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, run by David (Daniels) out of the ruins of Chicago O’Hare airport. Even in his Hilter-reminiscent outfits, he convinces an irritatingly passive Tris that the only way to help the “genetically damaged” people of Chicago is to use her “genetically pure” DNA to appeal to some mysterious council for intervention.

Meanwhile, a furrowed-brow Four learns that the Bureau is involved in kidnapping and brainwashing children from the radioactive “Fringe,” or the outskirts of nuclear wasteland that surround the Bureau’s hub. Despite the preponderance of exposition, we never do get to the reason David is stealing kids. Miles Teller provides an entertaining, mercurial and punchline-driven performance as Peter, who still doesn’t know whose side he’s on.

All this adds up to is a generic and unimaginative story set to a predictable score. We can’t decide if the hokey technology or the bad CGI is more laughable. Maybe it’s the political themes of division that lost the pissing contest to animated mammals. And lost badly.

Visit our Get Involved page to learn about our previous donations to Game Rangers International Elephant Orphanage Project and visit us again for our next opportunity to give to animal sanctuaries across the globe.