The Divergent Series: Allegiant
The franchise hits a wall…
First, the good news: after Insurgent – aka Divergent 2 – tapped out that grey, sim-city-fighting mood, this shiny threequel abseils over the giant wall surrounding dystopian Chicago and smartly drops us into a vibrantly scarlet, Martian-looking landscape. Director Robert Schwentke even kicks the enjoyably sub- Mad Max extreme-sport action sequences into a higher gear than previous instalments. But he’s banjaxed when the plot dictates that Tris (Shailene Woodley) and her fellow rebels are whisked to CGI-laden genetic-engineering biodome The Bureau. Here, the high-school hokum of the Divergent ‘factions’ becomes high-tech eugenics, as kindly director David ( Jeff Daniels) determines that only Tris’ ‘pure’ genes can save blighted mankind.
Always fond of pseudo-science and ethical quandaries, the Divergent series reaches a new, mildly pretentious peak here. But its sort-of-topical themes of genetic exclusion, surveillance, racism and ignoring neighbouring conflict don’t translate into meaty exploits. Instead the film favours wide-eyed wrangling between Tris and boyfriend Tobias (Theo James). The chief joy of the series, Shailene Woodley’s tenacious but vulnerable Tris, seems to be unusually Redundant, while Tobias is Resurgent, muscling through mysteriously violent Marine-style Bureau raids like an action hero.
Splitting the final book into two movies ( Ascendant is due next summer) should have given Allegiant endless plot possibilities to play with. Instead it drags out the Bureau business, with only the eye-candy compensations of cool space-age kit. And though we’re asked to invest in the fate of the Chicago inhabitants as well as Team Tris, we see only slivers of the Allegiant vs Factionless war. THE VERDICT This over-extended teen dystopia is treading water, coming up short on its trademark punchy plotting – and the wonderful Woodley. › Certificate 12A Director Robert Schwentke Starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Jeff Daniels Screenplay Noah Oppenheim, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage Distributor eOne Running time 121 mins