Effects, props dominate characters in latest 'Divergent' film 'Allegiant'
Is it just me, or do the black-and-white weapons wielded by the "Allegiant" heroes look like giant Super Soakers made for "Star Wars" storm troopers?
I only mention this because "Allegiant," the third in the "Divergent" movie series based on Barrington author Veronica Roth's best-selling novels, lavishes more time and attention on its cool props, sleek production design and slick visual effects than on its story and characters, reduced to cliche-spouting ciphers as they race from one life-threatening dystopian scenario to the next.
Dramatically, "Allegiant" feels tired and tuckered out.
Instead of rising up as a charismatic leader, as Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss does in "The Hunger Games" series, Shailene Woodley's lackluster Tris fades into the background, allowing a convoluted plot and a villainous Jeff Daniels to dominate the film.
The actress, who sparkled plenty in "The Spectacular Now" and "The Fault in Our Stars," never appears to feel comfortable as an action star.
If anything, Woodley's Tris is strictly a reactive heroine who lacks the spring-tension physicality necessary to sell a full-throttle action movie.
But she does sport a new tattoo, a super mod coiffure and enough makeup to qualify for a Maybelline TV spokesmodel.
Taking up where "Insurgent" left off, "Allegiant" begins with five truth-seekers on a mission to find out what's on the other side of that mysterious wall surrounding Chicago for the last 200 years.
(For those just joining the story, Naomi Watts' savagely political Evelyn has executed Kate Winslet's dictatorial Janine, but the regime-change promise of a better Chicago never happens. Go figure.)
Tris joins her star-glossed lover Four (a gung-ho Theo James), brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), Dauntless sidekick Christina (Zoe Kravitz) and woefully untrustworthy Peter (Miles Teller in ultra-snark mode) for a thrilling wall-climb up a concrete barrier.
They discover not only a devastated, inhospitable world beyond the wall, but yet another wall beyond the wall, an invisible force field.
It has been set up by a nefarious corporation's board of directors, whose CEO David (Jeff Daniels) is obsessed with both genetic purity and with Tris, the only genetically "pure" human in Chicago.
Finally, "Allegiant" gets around to explaining how the Windy City became the Rubble City, and why the factions - Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation and Candor - were created.
It would take several paragraphs and a Venn diagram to detail this disappointing explanation, and it would still contain more plot holes than Chicago has potholes.
Taking a cue from "The Hunger Games" and "Harry Potter" franchises, Summit Entertainment broke Roth's final book into two movies. "The Divergent Series: Ascendant" will be released on March 24, 2017.
Perhaps it can fill in the considerable gaps in "Allegiant," which kisses off a festering civil war between Evelyn and Amity leader Johanna (Octavia Spencer) at the same time it confirms that the once-unique Tris turns out to be nothing special.
Just like this movie.
“Allegiant”
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Octavia Spencer, Ansel Elgort, Naomi Watts, Miles Teller
Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Other: A Lionsgate release. Rated PG-13 for partial nudity, violence. 139 minutes