The Divergent Series-Allegiant Part I, Review: Alley Giant

Three down, one to go. This film is the first of two cinematic parts, based on the novel Allegiant, the final book in the Divergent trilogy, by Veronica Roth, and the third instalment in The Divergent Series of films. On the score board too, the series hits divergent marks. Neil Burger barely scraped through with the Divergent debut two years ago, while German director Robert Schwentke acquitted himself well in Insurgent last year. Schwentke has been retained for this encounter, in the hope that the gent (or is it Herr?) will better himself and emerge a giant. When you take a reality check, you find that ‘The Divergent Series-Allegiant Part I’ has a villain named David, the size of an alley giant, and the gargantuan Goliath is nowhere to be seen.

A little background is in order for first-timers. Roth’s novels have six human classes, clubbed according to personality traits: Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (kindness), Candor (honesty), Dauntless (bravery), and Erudite (intelligence). Anyone who does not conform to one of these five is banished to the city outskirts, as "factionless." A person who values all five virtues equally is known as "Divergent," which makes it six (or seven? I am ‘clueless’).

After seeing that the hostile situation within the city of Chicago is only going to get worse, Tris escapes with Four, Caleb, Christina, Tori, and Peter, to journey beyond the wall that encloses Chicago. Tori is killed by Edgar in the attempt, but is himself is later disabled by an armed group of individuals, with airship support. The soldiers take the group to the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, a highly advanced city, where they learn the truth about their society.

Many years ago, the government believed that society's problems were caused by "damaged genes". In an attempt to create a better society, they began to modify people's genes, with disastrous results. The government set up "experiments" in an attempt to repair this mistake, establishing isolated cities across the remains of the United States. The hope was to raise enough genetically pure Divergent individuals, to fix the "genetic damage" left in the wake of the Purity War.

Tris and Four are tested by Matthew and Nita, to verify and study their Divergence. Tris is shown to be truly Divergent, but Four's genetic structure indicates that his genes are still "damaged". Caleb and Peter are assigned to surveillance teams that monitor Chicago. Matthew then brings Tris to the leader of the Bureau, David. David gives Tris a device that allows her to view her mother's memories, and sees that her mother was rescued and adopted by the Bureau before volunteering to join the Chicago experiment, out of dedication to the project. Tris agrees to help David, in return for his help in restoring peace to Chicago. David claims that only the council he reports to has the power to intervene. Four has doubts about David’s intentions.

There have been different screen adaptors for each book, which might not seem such a good idea in hindsight. One author and four screenplay-writers have proven that, at least here, too many cooks have spoilt Veronica’s bRoth: Stephen Chbosky (Rent, Perks of Being a Wall-flower), Bill Collage (The Transporter Refueled, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Tower Heist), Adam Cooper (The Transporter Refueled, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Tower Heist) and Noah Oppenheim (The Maze Runner). 27 year-old Veronica Roth started writing when she was 12. Divergent (published 2011) was her first novel. Since then, she has published Insurgent and Allegiant, thus completing the trilogy. She describes herself as "… the good kid who came home at a reasonable hour and never did anything wrong." In her fictitious world, though, a lot of people do a lot of wrongs.

As a concept, the theme is novel, but the novelty is fast wearing out. Too many characters and too much sci-fi mean disorientation and a sense of overawe. Everybody seems to be either killing or getting killed, often for petty greed. There is little justification for the hordes who work for David to be doing so and for David to be doing what he is. After a while, the tortoise inspired planes cease to fascinate, even when they turn turtle. The scene where Four reacts to the breaking news of his planned murder and takes the plane down is well-executed, never mind how and why the news was broken to him in the first place.

Robert Schwentke (Flightplan, The Time Traveler's Wife, RED, Conspiracy of Fools, R.I.P.D.) has lost the Flightplan somewhat on this sector, in spite of loads of Time Travel. Hardly any character holds your attention and you can tell from a mile off that David is up to no good, though the gullible Tris can’t. 

Shailene Woodley as Beatrice "Tris" Prior and TheoJames as Tobias "Four" Eaton are the pretty face and the brooding hulk respectively. Ansel Elgort as Caleb Prior is dynamic but Miles Teller as Peter Hayes either deadpans or hams. Incidentally, he could dub for Farhan Akhtar, the Indian actor, and vice versa. As Hayes’ boss, David, Jeff Daniels (The Purple Rose of Cairo, Terms of Endearment, Dumb & Dumber) is also made to stay ‘deceptively’ deadpan and then sadistically ham. Ray Stevenson as Marcus Eaton has to live with the fact that his frame will always dictate what he does in the picture. As the two women out to decimate each other’s clans, white and tight Naomi Watts (Evelyn Johnson-Eaton) and black and bulky Octavia Spencer (Johanna Reyes) pass muster. Watts’ high-level watts are contrasted with Spencer’s lower octaves. Some sympathy is in order for Matthew, played by Bill Skarsgård.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE8LEPSTK6A