Allegiant: Welcome To The Surveillance State

We started this adventure in 2014 with Divergent, based on the first book of Veronica Roth’s YA dystopian series. We were thrust into a world divided into factions based on our personality and character traits. Tris Prior (Shailen Woodley) was an anomaly, a ‘divergent’, not fitting into any faction, thus making her a credible threat to the corrupt and villainous Erudite faction headed by Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet). The following sequel, Insurgent (2015) took the fight for truth to the next level as Tris was thrown out of her comfort zone. She had to fight her inner demons and accept who she was, but more so accept her identity. Now we’re at the third film of the franchise, Allegiant. Here, she will find shocking truths, make new alliances and discover more about her family. These will all aid her in the looming battle ahead, against  Erudite.

After the plot twists and groundbreaking revelations of Insurgent, Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James) and co must go Beyond The Wall that has instilled so much fear and discontent into the citizens of Chicago. Fear of the unknown and difference is what drives this series. For the first time in the series, our heroes will leave the only city and people they have ever known but we will also be witness to more locations too. Once they have scaled the walls, their old lives and ancient ideologies are rendered useless with the discovery of new truths that will the change the world as they know it forever. Tris and Four must swiftly decide who can be trusted as a savage and unrelenting battle of Chicago’s walls  threatens the existence of all humanity. In order to survive, they will be forced to make pragmatic choices about identity, loyalty, love and sacrifice.

Left To Right: Four (Theo James), Caleb (Ansel Elgort) & Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley)

Left To Right: Four (Theo James), Caleb (Ansel Elgort) & Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley)

In Allegiant, Tris and her renegade of rebels finally do some actual proper rebelling by going Beyond The Wall where they find a flourishing scientific community of friendly and welcoming people, or so they thought. A community that has been watching their every move since the day they were born. That’s not at all creepy or sinister. This group of scientists appear to have our tourists’ best interests at heart but appearances can be deceiving. Everything they say is a lie and they’re full of trickery and deceit. Four catches on to this when he meets the film’s main antagonist, The Director (Jeff Daniels) who spews lies like he’s drinking a glass of water. Yet again, we have another power-mad hooligan on our hands. So after taking down one corrupt faction, Tris and company must take down  these scientists who want to take down Chicago. They must do this, while trying to prevent the civil war that has taken root in thier city. We also see the addition of a silent hero in Bill’s Skarsgard’s (Hemlock Grove) Matthew. He watches, observes and acts when the time is right. I was unsure whether he was good or evil for quite a while, until proves he shows his quality.

Allegiant is sound movie but it’s the weakest of the series yet. I really enjoyed watching it but because the other two were so good, I feel Allegiant didn’t live up to the standard of the previous two movies. That being said, it’s still a great watch. The previous two movies were about exposing Jeanine for what she is and the corruption of Erudite. Jeanine is now dead and Four’s mom, Evelyn (Naomi Watts) has taken control. She’s become judge, jury and executioner. What she says goes and nobody argues. She’s executing the guilty members of ‘The Matthews Administration’. It seems we’ve swapped one fascist ruler for another. Evelyn is another Jeanine killing ‘the guilty’ and imprisoning those who disagree with her. Her thirst for blood is unmatched, except by maybe Johanna (Octavia Spencer). Allegiant still follows this story somewhat but it’s more to do with the surveillance state that is taking place Beyond The Wall.

Jeff Daniels as The Director AKA David

Jeff Daniels as The Director AKA David

Jeff Daniels is the blatant bad guy from the first scene he’s in. You can tell that he’s the villain. His aura breaths death and destruction. You’d have to be really stupid to not notice this, or be Tris Prior who chose The Director over Four. Throughout the series, she has shown her vulnerability through her poor judge of character and it’s things like that make me cringe when she has an “epic fail” moment. Four has known her since the beginning. He knows her strengths and weakness. They’re in a partnership that goes past romance and the hanky-panky. The rebellion is bigger than both of them but they ignited the rebellion together. Then she chooses The Director because he clicked his fingers. Moments like make me facepalm. But the ultimate facepalm is that Tris and her teammates keep letting Peter (Miles Teller) join their team despite knowing that Peter is a snake that only serves himself.

He can’t be trusted. They know it and the audience knows it but they go along with it anyway. He’s been doing it for two movies. Do you really think he’s going be trustworthy now? His spideryness nearly ends with Chicago on its knees. No doubt the next movie will have the team trusting Peter again. Allegiant is the most CGI-centric of the series so far. It couldn’t have been more CGI-heavy if it tried. It introduces some new characters and we sadly lose Tori (Maggie Q) right at the start. That was kind of predictable. They were on that wall way longer than they needed to be and someone was going to get got. There’s also some new CGI’d tech and those annoying orange bubbles that looked like they had been sprayed by a new brand of fake tan called Agent Orange.

Beyond The Wall: Game Of Thrones pun not intended

Beyond The Wall: Game Of Thrones pun not intended

Allegiant was good but not as good as the previous two movies. The relationship between Four and Tris resurrected its tediousness of Divergent again and the constant trusting of Peter began to get on my nerves. Tris began to get quite annoying. Not necessarily her actions but more so her naive trusting attitude and poor judge of character. She’s seen and experienced so much, and at times you see her as someone who had to grow up too fast and too quickly but at other times you see that she’s still a child who knows nothing of the world, or people for that matter.

In conclusion, it was good film with some great action pieces but it was too CGI-heavy. The story lacked the originality of the previous two movies but I found the surveillance state concept very interesting. Much alike Winslet in Divergent and Insurgent, Jeff Daniels (Steve Jobs) stole the show. He gave some great pieces of acting and I await the fourth and final movie next year, Ascendent.