Saturday, March 19, 2016

Allegiant (2016, PG-13)

Okay – so, as someone who read the books, I feel like I knew where this movie was going even less than someone watching it cold would.  Allegiant, adapted from the first half (three quarters?  kind of?) of the final Divergent book, goes decidedly further afield than either of its predecessors in terms of book faithfulness.  Given the original novel’s unevenness, this isn’t always a bad thing, but it means I have almost no idea what next year’s final installment will involve (premise spoilers, and spoilers for the previous books, especially Insurgent.)

Quick plot stuff:  Tris, her friends, and her entire society have been rocked by the revelation that their City is part of an elaborate experiment conducted by scientists who live in the still-extant world outside the wall.  Our heroine leads a small group into this outside world, where they find a new society divided into the genetically pure and the genetically damaged.  David, head of the experiment, courts Tris with the promise of all the healing her Divergence can bring to the world, but their new surroundings aren’t all they appear to be.

In terms of the adaptation, the movie hits a handful of highlights/important plot points from the book, though even the stuff that gets included is mostly included differently.  But as I said, some of the changes work well for me.  In particular, I think Four comes across much better:  smarter, more proactive, and while the revelations he learns in this film still mess him up, he deals with them more constructively.  I also feel Evelyn is slightly less unsympathetic, and I’m not entirely sure where they’re going with Peter, but Miles Teller gives such good Entertaining Douchebag.  Additionally, I like the increased focus on the relationship between the Bureau and the Fringe.

Unfortunately, many of the changes that don’t work for me concern Tris.  First of all, I didn’t how like the “100% Divergent” thing added to the second film made Tris much more of a Special Snowflake than she was in the books, and that trend continues here.  Also, with the Bureau being more obviously-uncool from the jump, her easy acceptance of what David tells her makes her look way more naïve than she ought to be.  My main issues after that are less with what’s changed than with what’s taken out.  As per usual, the supporting characters have little to do.  Christina is little more than a footnote, Uriah is blink-and-you’ll-miss-him, and neither Amar or George are there at all (if I recall correctly, that means that, in addition to changing Evelyn (PoC – probably Latina) and Four (biracial) to white, the films have removed all mentions of LGBTQ sexuality – Lynn was a minor character in Insurgent, but I believe they took out any references to her feelings for Marlene.  Boo!)  The adults fair a bit better; at least Maggie Q, Octavia Spencer, and Daniel Dae Kim make the most of their incredibly-limited screentime.

As for new cast members, the only character we meet with much focus is David, well played by Jeff Daniels.  However, there is a very brief appearance by Xander Berkeley, Percy from Nikita.  (First all the Nikita alumni on 12 Monkeys, and now this.  I love Nikita reunions, even when the actors in question don’t have any scenes together.  Wonder if Maggie Q helped him get the gig?)

Warnings

Violence, language, sensuality (including sexy decontamination showers – yeah, that happened,) and thematic elements.

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