Allegiant, the third installment of the dystopian Divergent series, gallops out of the gate with a bold setup, only to end up stifled by an unyielding trope.
Following the events of Insurgent, Caleb finds himself in a predicament, which I found compelling because the story wasn’t afraid to address the consequences of the previous sequel. The film is dark in tone and I appreciate that.
Tris and Four’s decision finds them, along with Caleb and a couple of others, traveling to the forbidden area—the other side of that wall.
What is out there?
Nobody knows and I was sure interested to find out. And so as we journey through the rest of the world, or at least the part that is in close proximity to their hometown of Chicago, they quickly meet up with the natives. Too bad because I wanted a bit more exploration.
Information exposition answers the two important questions that have lingered since the first movie—why are there fractions and why are people fractured/why isn’t divergency the normal state of being? And the reason satisfies.
The technology with this society outside the wall offers some cool visuals. Flying vehicles and an invisible force field that materializes.
It was a nice contrast to the bleak surroundings of their post-apocalyptic life. And it makes one ponder on how a society would survive when having to start over as compared to one that is allowed to flourish.
But then the story dives in a pool of quicksand with every plot point and character action plunging it deeper. That nasty trope pops up, the one that seems to be attached to every young adult movie—Tris is really special. If you didn’t get that memo from the first two movies, well Allegiant will remind you.
The trope minimizes Four’s divergent abilities. It also serves to waste Tris’ character as she spends a lot of time doing something with David, the head of this group. He’s the “big brother is watching you” type. He has a plan and controlling everything.
However, Tris spends much of this time apart from the others. As a result, Four gets himself in trouble. He’s given action scenes to fill his time, which Theo James is good at. So that was at least fun to watch.
But motives get blurred. People make decisions that are dumb or just extreme to keep the pieces moving across the Allegiant board. It leads to them returning home to stop someone else making a bad decision, which leads to another foe popping up to make an even worse decision. Seriously, why would this person want to actually go through with the plan? For a nice office?
The ending did satisfy though and lead to an amusing scene. The chemistry between Four and Tris was good and Allegiant had enough action to keep one engaged.
But, all in all, the plot felt forced with characters doing things to force others into action. I suspect this is a result of having two separate story lines—home and the new society—where both needed to converge in a way that forced Tris and Four to get involved and save the day. Too bad because it started out well.
Score: 4/10
