Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), Caleb, Peter (Miles Teller), and Christina venture beyond the wall surrounding Chicago as they go searching for what is left out there after the message from the box (at the end of INSURGENT) is played.  Evelyn, Four’s mother, tries to keep everyone within the city and enforce mob justice on those under the regime of the former leader Jeanne.  Tris and company find the Bureau of Genetic Affairs lead by David (Jeff Daniels).  Can David be trusted as the people outside Chicago look for Genetically Pure people as they look down as anyone genetically modified as damaged?

 

ALLEGIANT is loosely based on the third and final book in the DIVERGENT series (where Summit has decided to adapt the book as two movies with Part 2- ASCENDANT to be released next year).   It has great action scenes, but it has bad science and it is a bad science fiction movie along with numerous plot holes and tired plot elements they used before in the first two movies.  The actors deliver their lines as best as they can, but the script is a mess as it seems like they use the book’s plot as merely a suggestion at times.  The land outside Chicago looks like a red sand toxic land with toxic rain which doesn’t make much sense since the big war was 200 years ago unless the reduced population land of the future are super polluters compared to today’s world.   Then you have futuristic aircraft with energy bubbles which would waste lots of energy.  I think the writers and producers just wanted to create what they think is a post-apocalyptic dystopia whether science is right or not.  I don’t think they give a damn about the science in this science fiction movie.

 

The third movie in the DIVERGENT movie series is a  set-up for a final conflict in ASCENDANT which makes me wonder if they would have been better served in making the book one movie instead of two (plus I heard they may be slash the final film’s budget by a few million before shooting begins).   The first two movies had a uniform look and story in tone while ALLEGIANT is a total 180 (even more than the book) from the first two movies (DIVERGENT and INSURGENT).  They also don’t focus enough on the group called the Allegiant as they do in the book.   The third movie is passable enough to watch, but it may not hold enough for repeat viewings like DIVERGENT and INSURGENT does.  I do hope the writers and producers do manage to make a good finale with ASCENDANT, but all is hope if the script is anything like the script for ALLEGIANT.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

ALLEGIANT: FROM BOOK TO FILM-  featurette on adapting the final book into two films and what they decided to change

FINDING THE FUTURE: EFFECTS & TECHNOLOGY- a look at the effects and props of the third film

THE NEXT CHAPTER: CAST & CHARACTERS- about the cast and characters of the latest film

CHARACTERS IN CONFLICT- talking about the antagonists of ALLEGIANT

BATTLE IN THE BULLFROG- behind-the-scenes of the fight sequence in the bullfrog

BUILDING THE BUREAU- production design of the Bureau location

 

Audio commentary with Producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher

 

TAREGT BONUS DVD:

INTO THE FRINGE- a behind-the-scenes look at creating the Fringe

THE ESCAPE: OVER THE WALL- behind-the-scenes of the action sequence

UNLOCKING A NEW LOOK- costume design

COMPOSING ALLEGIANT- the composer discusses the music for the third film

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: ALLEGIANT has great production design, costume design, and music, but sadly they should have come up with a better thought out script.  The behind-the-scenes featurettes on the blu-ray are better than the movie sadly.

 

This review is ©7-22-2016 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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