The Divergent series continues to get worse with the penultimate installment, Allegiant.
Discovering that life in Chicago post-revolution isn’t much better than life pre-revolution, Tris and her pals decide to make a break for it and see what’s outside the wall. (This is what the final scene in Divergent hinted at, but instead we got stuck with more running around the city in the second film, but that’s beside the point.) There, they discover another type of civilisation, one that holds the key to the future of mankind. And it all seems grand, except for the fact that -surprise, surprise – the people in charge are lying and manipulative adults.
And as the series’ box office performance decreases, and the budgets increase, you have to wonder if splitting this last book into two was a good idea. Where Divergent was chock full of science fiction clichés, Allegiant is spread rather thin across the two hours. What’s more, the screenplay demands a lot more VFX, and the budget isn’t really up to it.
The presence of Jeff Daniels doesn’t help the film, nor does usual brilliance of Woodley. She’s absent for much of the action, and when we do see her she’s usually standing in a room, talking to Daniels. Joseph Trapanese’s score is more memorable than his work on the previous entry, but alas it still doesn’t come close to the brilliance of Junkie XL’s work on the first film.
It’s such a pity the franchise has fallen so far. I was an ardent (and rare, it seems) supporter of the first film, but there’s very little to recommend here. I’ll see Ascendant when it arrives, but only out of a misguided and stubborn determination to see the franchise to its end.