Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort
Distributor: Entertainment One Films
Runtime: 120 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2016
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The ‘Divergent’ films were never noted for being original, but this latest instalment – the third of a planned four, with ‘Ascendant’ due in 2017 – takes the franchise’s tiredness to new heights. This reviewer enjoyed the second film, ‘Insurgent’, but here at last, the predictability and banality overcome any pleasure left for casual viewers.
Fans of Veronica Roth’s book trilogy may be sated, but no one else need bother. The filmmakers have largely abandoned any attempt to bring new audiences up to speed with previous events, instead picking up right where we left off in post-apocalyptic Chicago. With Jeanine dead and the Erudite government toppled, the faction system is overthrown and ad hoc trials of the surviving war criminals have begun, Tris’ brother Caleb amongst them.
Director Robert Schwentke pulls out every trick in his bag to try to make this interesting – swooping camerawork, dual focus, Altman-esque layers of sound – but it is clear he is just itching to take the action beyond the walls of the city. Most trials end in execution, so Tris and her hunky beau Four rebel against Factionless leader (and Four’s mother) Evelyn to break Caleb free and escape. They’re joined by fellow rebels Christina and Tori, along with the self-interested Peter, and make for the wall.
As they attempt to scale the structure, Edgar establishes himself as the villainous thug of this film by killing Tori, filling the archetypal void left by Eric’s death in the last film. They make it over and head out into the radioactive wasteland in search of whomever delivered the message they received in ‘Insurgent’. After a short scuffle with Edgar (who re-enters the fray with the most inane, slow-motion car stunt imaginable), they find who they were looking for, greeted by a well-armed troop of high-tech soldiers who escort them back to the Bureau of Genetic Welfare.
The film is once more a production designer’s dream job, with gleaming futuristic skyscrapers towering above the scarlet badlands, but everything looks a little more flat and fake this time, with the pronounced sheen of CG elements. As the new deliveries learn the truth about their world, the Bureau’s leader Daniel makes his first appearance. As Tris and her pals try to sort the charismatic Daniel’s words into truth and fiction, they are also occupied by a civil war looming back in Chicago, as Evelyn and Johanna (leading a new group calling themselves the Allegiant) vie for control. What comes next plays out like the dull lovechild of other YA adaptations ‘Mockingjay Part 2’ and ‘The Scorch Trials’, even pinching story beats from the franchise’s first entry ‘Divergent’. Despite crediting four screenwriters, the film manages to play out exactly as anyone with basic knowledge of storytelling will expect.
The obvious filmmaking doesn’t help – it may be considered a spoiler to say that Daniel predictably turns out to harbour nefarious motives, but our heroes’ first experience in the Bureau includes being sanitised and barcoded by sinister, hissing machinery. Villainy and suspect technology have gone hand in hand since before Kubrick made ‘2001’, so no surprises there. Even the cast doesn’t seem to be giving it their all this time around. In their defence, they are given markedly more boring things to do, without much in the way of character development.
Jeff Daniels makes a slight impression as Daniel, but not even his sincere charm can mask the coming ‘twist’. Poor Shailene Woodley does her best to make Tris a lead worth rooting for, but with the wool being pulled over her eyes for most of the runtime, she loses the rebellious, combative streak which previously made her compelling. In short, watching ‘Allegiant’ is witnessing a franchise crumble in on itself. With box office receipts dwindling overseas, the fate of ‘Ascendant’ is uncertain. If this reviewer had a say, the verdict would be extermination.
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