By Jackson Weaver
Junior Trash Manger
The prolonged suspense of what truly lies behind “the wall” is a letdown. The mediocre “Allegiant” drags out the Divergent series in another obligatory two-part finale.
“The Divergent Series: Allegiant- Part 1”, directed by Robert Schwentke, is the film adaptation of the third book in the Divergent series. The film contains an unoriginal plot, acting merely as another film revolving around the overused concept of a dystopian society. Schwentke also fails to make improvements to his dull characters, a problem present in the series’ previous films.
Taking place in a dystopian version of Chicago, Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) lead a group to find out what lies beyond the wall that shields them from the rest of the world. However, once she successfully escapes, Tris struggles to find the people that she can trust as opposed to those that are taking advantage of her.
The only glimpse of light from this otherwise dull film is that the plot stems off into two perspectives. The first focuses on Tris and her befriending of a council member named David (Jeff Daniels), and the other revolves around Four as he ventures back to Chicago in an attempt to save the city from his diabolical mother Evelyn (Naomi Watts). The two perspectives create a plot that never is at a stand-still with constant action bouncing back and forth between the two.
The first two films revolve around a dystopian society called Chicago, where Tris and Four fight to restore order in society by seeking equality for all. In “Allegiant”, after traveling beyond the wall that keeps them inside the city, they have the same objective but on a slightly larger scale as they begin to try to restore order in numerous other cities. This shows a lack of originality because the film just regurgitates the exact same plot idea present in the previous two films.
Also, “Allegiant” focuses primarily on the two main characters Tris and Four and, while the minor characters are completely nonexistent in the plot. Introduced in the beginning, Christina (Zoe Kravitz) initially is a part of the group of main characters seeking to travel beyond the wall. However, once they all get across, she becomes a tag-along character having no effect on the advancement of the storyline. The perspective of the film focuses solely on Tris and Four, and because of this, minor characters are cut out and the plot loses the depth it had in the beginning of the film.
Once again, Schwentke disappoints due to another unoriginal dystopian film while continuing to ride out the same plot used in his first two movies. The minor characters are generally nonexistent in the plot as Tris and Four are stuck leading the entire film.
“Allegiant” is rated Pg-13 and is playing in theaters nationwide.
Leave a Reply