Movie Review: 'Allegiant'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Divergent and Insurgent have brought us to Allegiant.
It's the third of four science fiction dramas (the final installment due next year as the final book has been split into two films) set in a bleak, post-apocalyptic, dystopian Chicago, based on the best-selling trilogy of Young Adult novels by Veronica Roth.
People living in a caste system based on personality and dedication to the cultivation of a particular virtue have been divided and segregated into five distinct factions: Erudite (the intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Candor (the Honest).
It was at age 16 that all societal members had to make the irreversible decision of choosing whether to stay in their home faction for the rest of their lives or not.
What followed for the teens was a highly competitive initiation process that involved extreme physical and intense psychological tests.
Shailene Woodley stars again as Beatrice "Tris" Prior, who was born into the Abnegation tribe but who was seen as divergent because she didn't fit squarely into any of the five factions, so she chose Dauntless but risked being put to death by secretly joining the forbidden designation.
Kate Winslet played the leader of the Erudite faction, intent on destroying all Divergents as part of a sinister plot involving the corrupt government. But she's gone now.
And now the civil war that has erupted and essentially collapsed the factions engulfs them and threatens to tear their world apart.
What Tris and Four, played by Theo James, along with their fellow rebels must decide as Allegiant opens is whether or not they should somehow take on an escape mission and get beyond the wall that encircles Chicago in order to meet the people in charge – led by David, played by Jeff Daniels -- and discover exactly what kind of "experiment" is underway in this dictatorship.
The large supporting ensemble also includes Naomi Watts, Octavia Spenser, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Maggie Q, Ansel Elgort, and Xander Berkeley.
The film addresses the themes of family and community and genetics, as it offers interesting metaphoric parallels that are especially resonant to teens, such as long-range decision-making, nonconformity, and the effect of futuristic expectations.
But Divergent 3 registers as exposition-heavy and dangles more plot holes than its predecessors. And ends rather abruptly and prematurely because there's more to come.
Still, Woodley is again unfussily natural and firmly charismatic, while Theo James, given more to do this trip, is fine as the film's dashing and resourceful action hero.
With Robert Schwentke (Flight Plan, The Time Traveler's Wife, RED, R.I.P.D.), who also directed Insurgent, back in the director's chair, Allegiant, which features plenty of well-executed action, certainly helps the Divergent franchise to give the Twilight and Hunger Games franchises a run for their teen-targeted money.
So we'll encircle 3 stars out of 4 for the penultimate Allegiant, another sufficiently engrossing helping of science fiction about friction between factions that's just about up to the high standards of its two predecessors and therefore shouldn't test the allegiance of the futuristic franchise's fervent, forgiving fans, who will undoubtedly look forward to next year's Ascendant.