The Divergent Series: Allegiant, film review: Teen sci-fi series is losing its way
(12A) Robert Schwentke, 121 mins. Starring: Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Theo James, Naomi Watts
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Tris (Shailene Woodley) is still in battle-torn, near-derelict Chicago where mob justice is being meted out by followers of the new leader, Evelyn (Naomi Watts). Evelyn is the mom of Tris's beau, Four (Theo James), but that doesn't stop her from behaving just as viciously as the Kate Winslet character did in the previous two instalments.
Tris, Four and the other young heroes (including Miles Teller's still perfidious Peter) escape the city and take their chances in the toxic red desert beyond the wall. There, they encounter the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, as shadowy an organisation as its name suggests, run by the friendly but inscrutable David (Jeff Daniels). The Hunger Games (of which Divergent sometimes seems a clone) combined dystopian political satire with teen drama in effective, coherent fashion – and it ended on a very strong note. By contrast, Divergent is losing its way. Some of the action scenes (notably the escape from Chicago and the scaling of the wall) are staged with energy but others are formulaic in the extreme.
The finale here is about as exciting to watch as an office party on a paintball outing. Woodley is a formidable young actress but she is badly let down by a skimpy script that pays far too little attention to developing character and far too much to showing off guns and gizmos.
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