‘The Divergent Series: Allegiant’ review

Sylvia Carlson, Writer

The third movie in the Divergent series hit theaters March 18th and did not get the attention the filmmakers were hoping for. With an opening weekend box office of $29 million, compared to $54 million of the first movie in the series, the movie fell very short of its expectations. The Divergent Series: Allegiant was the first of two movies based off the best-selling novel Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Part of the reason could be that fans were upset that yet another young adult series was having its final book being split into two movies, but that will be a whole different discussion. In conclusion, the movie’s plot, detail and special effects were disastrous, overshadowing the incredible acting by the cast members.

The movie started out slow, but by the end, it had me on the edge of my seat, even though it was mostly over dramatic and had unnecessary action scenes. Tris, the main character played by Shailene Woodley, and her gang of friends started the movie still in their home of Chicago. They soon had a dramatic exit as they went outside the wall,  which surrounded the city they had spent the first two movies in, to explore what else was out there. They were met by a team of futuristic soldiers and taken to a training facility at O’Hare airport. There, they had to decide whether they could trust this new group of people and if they were really on the same side. Although the plot was very different than the book, the change added lots of action into what would have been a slow movie.

The positives of the movie have been slim. It had some fairly exciting action scenes to keep the audience engaged. The star-studded cast included Shailene Woodley, who played Tris Prior, Theo James, who played her love interest Four Eaton,  Ansel Elgort, who played Tris’ brother Caleb and Miles Teller, who played Peter, a friend of Tris and Four. The character that stood out the most was Teller’s role of Peter who had several funny lines throughout the movie that gave the whole audience a chuckle. In contrast, the negatives were abundant. The special effects were so terrible it caused the audience to cringe, and the movie was filled with countless plot holes. Woodley’s character, Tris, continued to refuse to listen to anyone’s advice and had to make the mistakes herself, which proved to be very irritating to the audience. Most of the character’s had major communication problems, without which the weak plot would have fallen apart. In addition, the explanation for futuristic world outside the wall and why the faction system was set up inside the city, hardly made any sense. There were quite a few concepts introduced and then given no explanation. Because of all this, it was quite a disappointing movie after the first two in the series followed the books so well.

Overall, I would not recommend going to see this movie in theaters. If interested in having a fun movie night with friends, then this would be a great movie to rent. You might end up liking it if you do not go into it with high expectations. But be warned to not think about the plot and explanations or you will start questioning the whole movie. I’d give it a 2 stars out of 5.