Allegiant

"The Divergent Series: Allegiant" is another part of this too long and boring franchise. The saga of Tris and Four and their friends is repetitive and predictable, using clichés and special effects. The screenplay is poor and stupid. For example, David is capable to close doors and remotely controls the city; why does he need someone to release the gas in Chicago? The worst is that the story does not end and there will be another sequel to gross more money for the producers. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Série Divergente: Convergente" ("The Divergent Series: convergent")

The movie takes the exact same plot, style and ideas from the first two films in the series and does absolutely nothing new with them. There is less tension, everything makes no sense, is in your face obvious and bland.

It's not even the end of the story. Remember when franchises were just trilogies? Those were the days. In fact, the series will turn into a real TV series through a fitting connection: the next film in the franchise called Ascendant, which will be a TV film.

When the film started I couldn't remember what story it was continuing. Scenes from Hunger Games and Maze Runner and bits of trailers and teasers were mixed inside my brain and somehow completely covered the entire length of the movie. I kid you not, I had the sensation that I had already seen every single scene. It was that obscenely unimaginative.

Bottom line: a complete waste of time. The Maze Runner is much better than this, even if it has almost the same exact plot.

I enjoyed the hell out of this film. It had me constantly engaged and interested in the story. I like the conflict between the characters, but glad they didn't make it dramatic. My biggest problem is there are such big ideas in this movie, they needed more time to develop some of them. A few scenes here to flesh out the conflict more. I am pretty sure they didn't do it because they have to follow the currently trend right now, mindless action set pieces with very little story. I appreciate the writers and director trying to accomplish something bigger, but there were still some missing parts. I still enjoyed the movie a lot and appreciate the effort.

I won't bore you with another detailed review of "Allegiant" It's been well covered already but I will say that if you are a fan of the books...

No need to freak out! Was "Allegiant" the movie perfect? No. Not by a long shot. It obliterated and basically stripped many of the complex and more interesting layers that brought the characters body and soul in the book. We were left with a very skeletal, fractured and less interesting story. The movie did veer from the original work quite a bit but the substance of the story was still there...it wasn't lost. We still get the point of what the purpose of the experiment cities were designed for. We get the struggle for power and the fight for humanity to fight for its survival against what seems like insurmountable odds. We get the theme of loyalty and family, ambition and greed vs sacrifice and selflessness. All the elements are there.

Was I annoyed that this movie is part 1 of 2? Not really. I look forward to seeing how the writers and director will adjust the story. Many fans were unhappy with the ending of the book anyway and would like to see it fixed. We'll have to wait and see if the powers that be stick to Veronica Roth's vision or create an alternate. But really, there is no need to feel disappointed or distraught. It is after all an adaptation!

Theo James as Four was awesome, though I felt his character wasn't given much substance in this flick, still he was fun to watch. Bill Skarsgard who played Matthew was a nice surprise. I loved every scene he was in and Miles Teller stole the show as the always self-serving jerk, Peter. We didn't get much from Zoe Kravitz and Maggie Q was great as Tori. Shailene Woodley was OK. She could only work with what she was given. But the fellas carried this movie from beginning to end. Even Jeff Daniels had his moments.

Overall, I thought it was entertaining. Not perfect but I give it a pass.

I'm not a big fan of this franchise, but the first movie was reasonably solid and entertaining. The second was hugely disappointing and actually fairly boring.

As for Allegiant, I think they've somewhat rescued the franchise with this film. It answered a lot of questions and moved the story on. We find out the truth about what a Divergent actually is and the truth about what is the other side of the wall. There is some good action in the movie and it's still feels very much a twilight, hunger games style teen movie. The acting is fairly average for what you would expect.

The overriding feeling I got though is how on earth have they got 4 movies out of this franchise? We haven't come a long way in the story so far yet we've sat through 6 hours of movie time. I don't therefore have high hopes for the 4th and (hopefully) final installment. Large sections of all 3 movies could have been cut out and merged and we could have seen 2 really good 2 hours movies. Instead it will go down as another disappointing franchise spread needlessly over 4 movies. Money...