Movie Review - The Divergent Series: Allegiant
I'm a huge fan of the Divergent book series, and also loved the first two films based on them. Allegiant is no exception, and although the first Divergent movie is still my favorite, this one is now my second favorite, with Insurgent (movie #2) coming in third.
All of your favorites from the past two movies, with one exception, are present here: Shailene Woodley as Tris, Theo James as Four, Ansel Elgort as Caleb (Tris's brother), Zoe Kravitz as Christina, Miles Teller as Peter, and Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer in supporting roles. The "new guy" in this movie is Jeff Daniels, who plays David, the leader of the Bureau, where the foirmer Chicagoans take refuge. The Bureau is supposed to be a safe haven for them, but Tris and Four soon figure out that the Bureau is hiding some major secrets - thus setting up David to be the new "big bad" of the series.
Much like the Harry Potter and Hunger Games franchises, the trilogy's final book is being split in two. This was actually Allegiant part one - but in an interesting move, the next movie will be called Ascendant, instead of Allegiant part two; the book series is a trilogy, with Allegiant being the last book, so it's interesting that they've chosen to retitle the fourth movie. What I did like about this "part one" is that it didn't end abruptly; although it would have been just a so-so end to the series, the ending of Allegiant works, with the unspoken promise that more of the story will come eventually.
Yes, see this movie. I didn't see it in IMAX but I could see it being amazing in that format. There's a lot of action going on in this installment and a lot more sci-fi elements come into play, in my opinion, mixed with the story's dystopian core. Like the previous two films, the cast works together great here, and we get to see more of the relationship between Four (James) and Evelyn (Naomi Watts), who plays Four's mother, in this movie. I'd highly recommend viewing the first two films before this one, though, because Allegiant jumps right in to the story without giving much background - it's assuming that moviegoers have seen the two - and so if you haven't seen at least the first film, you might be a little confused. Ascendant (aka Allegiant part two) will be in theaters on June 9, 2017.
Allegiant is in theaters today, March 18th, and is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 121 minutes. 4 stars out of 5.
Read my reviews of the first two movies in the series:
