The Divergent Series: Allegiant

This review may contain spoilers!

The Divergent sequels have just never really been able to match up to the first film. I would give The Divergent Series: Allegiant a 6/10.

The narrative for this film is really strange, it's fractured into what is basically three storylines that all collide awkwardly in the final act. I'll talk a bit more about two of these storylines later in my review but for now i'd like to discuss the one that really impressed me: the plot revolving around Four. This storyline was great because it had a great element of action and danger in it but what really made it stand out was that Four had to encounter some very traumatic things like parents beings gunned down in front of children or children having their entire memories erased. This film had some great cinematography, the director really knew how to create some incredible panning and tracking shots. The score for this film really worked the blockbuster vibe well, it's not the most memorable collection of music but it is pretty powerful and serves the film well. The fight scenes in this film were few and far between but when they swung around they were very well choreographed, any fight sequence with Four was a high point of the film.

Shailene Woodley, who played Tris, is a pretty good protagonist; Woodley is very good at playing empathetic roles and creating a very moral character. Theo James, who played Four, had one of the strongest presences in this film; James is a very physical performer who can be both and intimidating and vulnerable through his body language. Octavia Spencer, who played Johanna Reyes, is a great leader in this feature; she feels very charismatic but has a hard edge to her. Daniel Dae Kim, who played Jack Kang, has a great one scene appearance in this film; he is really the driving force behind the intensity of the 'trial' scene. Bill Skarsgard, who played Matthew, did a brilliant job of introducing the characters and the audience to the new setting of the Bureau; I really enjoyed the fact his character became a bit more three-dimensional when he helped betray David. Andy Bean, who played Romit, was a really intimidating footsoldier for the Bureau; Bean did a good job at creating a role who was very two-faced and who had a darker agenda. Parisa Johnston, who played Regina, had an enjoyable minor role in this film; Johnston's smug elite role really fit well as a new character to this cast.

However the best performance came from Miles Teller, who played Peter. Teller does a great job in these films and always manages to stand out to me. In every film he's had a sort of annoying role that could be described as being an antagonist but in this film he really embraces that aspect; it's really interesting seeing Teller act out this betrayal and adopt the role of David's lackey. Beyond this element of his role I think Teller brings a great sense of humour to this franchise, his snide remarks and quips are some of the highlights of the film for me.

This film had a lot going on with the narrative, the three central storylines only served to make the film extremely confusing and ultimately the film dragged out for a significant portion of the feature. Tris was relatively underused or poorly used in this film, the entire storyline around the genetic enhancements and research was a lot more complicated than a film like this needed it to be. I also really didn't like how they did the civil war between the Allegiant and Factionless forces in Chicago; there wasn't a lot of attention put on it so you never really cared much about it. The editing was really stiff, the cutting was otherwise very slow or came at awkward times. The special effects in this film looked awful, there were several instances where the CGI looked artificial or you could visually see the green screen backdrops.

Naomi Watts, who played Evelyn, never really seemed like great casting to me; her character's motives and actions are all over the place to the point where you don't even know if she's acting out of character or not. Jeff Daniels, who played David, is a very weak antagonist in this film; he isn't very menacing but instead seems tired as the film goes along. Zoe Kravitz, who played Christina, doesn't have much screen presence in this film; her character hasn't had much purpose since the original film. Ansel Elgort, who played Caleb, might very well be one of the worst upcoming actors out there; Elgort was given far too much screen time in this film and you don't really buy into his character's 'redemption' arc. Maggie Q, who played Tori, was given a weak and unnecessary death scene in this film; there wasn't even any fallout after her role died so it just felt like a character death for shock value. Jonny Weston, who played Edgar, was another one of the film's weak antagonists; Weston's thuggish role never really seemed very dangerous so much as he was incompetent. Nadia Hilker, who played Nita, was one of the Bureau characters that you never really cared much for; in fact her betraying the Bureau felt really out of place. Ray Stevenson, who played Marcus, had a pretty terrible one scene appearance in this film; he was just written off lazily for the sake of a plot device. Mekhi Phifer, who played Max, was one of the weaker parts of the opening 'trial' scene; he played a two-dimensional character and never really felt like anything else.