Cinematic Releases: The Divergent Series - Allegiant

Tris and Four continue to fight the future. 

Kiss me like you're a piece of wood.

The third Divergent movie arrives in theaters and gases audiences to sleep with a nauseating jaunt through a dystopian future filled with young wooden actors trying to destroy controlling factions of evil doers. Sound familiar? Of course it does. 

This sequel is a dire retread of everything else we've ever seen in these young adult novels but much worse. With an extended run time and a nearly identical plot to the last two entries in this series, Allegiant  is a horrid looking third part that does absolutely nothing but soak up more dollars from fans of the books I never read. With a phenomenal sounding synth based arpeggiated soundtrack, everything else falls by the wayside as the absolutely terrible visuals drag Allegiant into the gutter of nearly unwatchable sequelitis. 

Not being a fan of the second movie, I went in with an open mind, hoping there could possibly be some semblance of a comeback for this franchise. With the leads jumping from place to place constantly, an emotionless Shailene Woodley, an inordinate amount of character assassination, and plot points ripped directly from the far greater Hunger Games series, this third entry is a tedious watch that uses way too much slow motion and god awful graphics. Whenever it seems like the movie may stray into new territory that's heavily borrowed from the visual elements of Fury Road (tons of oranges and reds), this director pulls back the reins and reminds us that we're in novel territory that really has absolutely nothing new to say. Everyone we think is a bad guy turns out to be a bad guy. The people we think will be side switchers turn on a dime. And the fatal mistakes of Insurgent come back to haunt audiences time and time again. 

Would you look at that?
A sterile looking environment.
Who would have ever thought of that
highly original idea?

The trend of teenagers leading their people to a future free of those pale skinned adults in cool looking costumes is beginning to wear excessively thin. Allegiant  skims the surface of what used to make science fiction a great genre to experience at the theater. Going all the way back to classics like Logan's Run or THX-1138, mankind's battle to set themselves free of their oppressors has made room for stories like these. Unfortunately, Shailene Woodley and her depressed band of post teenage warriors don't do much to invigorate this dying breed of movies. 

Allegiant says nothing new. It plays out too safely while most central characters are never really put in harm's way. For me, as an avid cinema goer and a huge fan of science fiction that pits mankind in a war for freedom, this series is a hair away from being insipid and a lowly cash cow, centered on lack of character development and any amount of artistic integrity. Take one look at some of the horribly rendered CGI in this and you'll be convinced of the same. 

Ms. Woodley is way better than this. 


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Score

-CG