The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016)
Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Premise: The third film in the Divergent series. Following the events of Insurgent,
in which the faction system was destroyed, the victors persecute their
former oppressors. Tris (Shailene Woodley) and company flee the city
and discover the truth about the faction system.
What Works: The main problem with the Divergent series was that its very premise was dumb. The first movie
was about a society in which people were sorted into rigid castes
based on their talents and dispositions; those who don’t fit into these
categories, or factions, were considered “divergent” and therefore
deemed a threat to society. The problem was that those categories,
including selflessness, bravery, intelligence, honesty, and
peacefulness, were not totally encompassing of the human experience and
no one is defined by a single personality trait. In Allegiant,
the lead characters travel outside of the ruins of Chicago and Tris
and her allies discover an answer that retroactively causes the faction
system to make some sense. Allegiant is also admirable in the way it complicates the revolution of Insurgent.
In a lot of dystopian movies about populist movements facing down
tyranny and overthrowing the establishment, the solution is too simple.
The storytellers of Allegiant recognize that revolutions
usually fail even when they succeed and the new order is often as cruel
and oppressive as the old order. That’s dramatized in this film and it
adds some maturity to the story world.
What Doesn’t: The Divergent franchise is
another example of a young adult fantasy series in which the last book
of the trilogy has been split into two films: 2016’s Allegiant and 2017’s Ascendant. The strange flaw of Allegiant
is that there are enough plot developments in this half to sustain a
single movie but the filmmakers don’t do nearly enough with them to
make the story interesting. The first part of Allegiant is
about Tris and her allies escaping from the increasing brutality of the
post-revolutionary city. But the film doesn’t do anything interesting
with all of that. With very little exposition or deliberation, the
characters immediately decide they have to leave but for some reason
revolutionary leader Evelyn (Naomi Watts) is obsessed with keeping
everyone within the confines of the city. This conflict doesn’t make
much sense. Tris and company escape into the wasteland where they
discover a facility headed by David (Jeff Daniels), a scientists and
bureaucrat who has been pulling the strings inside of Chicago and
managing the faction system as part of a bigger experiment. This section
of the story ought to be full of interesting tensions. Since the main
characters have left Chicago, the city is devolving into a civil war
between factions led by Evelyn and Johanna (Octavia Spencer). Four
(Theo James) argues that they should go back and stop the bloodshed
while Tris attempts to discover David’s real agenda. The impending
civil war ought to create some drama and the disagreement between Tris
and Four ought to magnify that tension but Allegiant is really boring. Some of that is due to the cumulative failures of Divergent and Insurgent. Those movies didn’t set up interesting characters or a compelling story world and Allegiant
inherits all of those flaws. But the filmmakers do nothing to fix
those problems. Tris remains an uninteresting lead character and her
romantic relationship with Four has no heat. The civil war ought to
create some interest but no one is fighting over anything tangible.
There’s no tension in the research facility sequences and the twists
are obvious from the start. As a result, a lot of Allegiant comes across as filler. What’s most irritating about Allegiant
is that the moviemakers are deliberately running out the clock so that
the studio can make another movie and the audience can buy another
ticket.
Bottom Line: Allegiant is the beginning of the end for the Divergent series but this franchise ran out of compelling ideas in its first installment. There’s nothing left to do except wait for the inevitable finale that no one is looking forward to.
Episode: #589 (April 3, 2016)