In anticipation of The Divergent Series: Allegiant, the opening installment of Summit Entertainment’s two-part finale, hitting theaters in little over a week, the studio has debuted a slew of new images.
Showcasing the leading players of the franchise’s penultimate chapter, the stills arrive in tandem with Allegiant‘s first wave of reviews, which weren’t too kind on Summit’s dystopian actioner.
[zerg]Arriving by way of The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, the general consensus among critics – for now, at least – appears to be that while director Robert Schwentke expresses visual flair during action sequences, Allegiant is undermined by muddled storytelling and a lack of pacing made worse by its “artificially protracted” two-part structure.
The Wrap: Schwentke and the three screenwriters try to keep the action moving — back in Chicago, a factional civil war is brewing between Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer, hamming and slumming both — but the main characters remain peripheral. Though the director stages several scenes with real visual flair, including one memorable sequence where we see the effects of a powerful weapon from the perspective of the man it’s being used on, nothing can keep the franchise beast from consuming the film.
THR: With director Robert Schwentke returning to the helm, and a cast lead by Shailene Woodley suiting up for another sci-fi actioner where big ideas are often bottled down into resounding clichés, this handsomely made effects-driven vehicle offers more of the same and then some — a fact that will hardly bother fans who’ve already pledged their allegiance to the franchise, but won’t convert any nonbelievers.
Variety: Stuck in the green-screen world of the futuristic Bureau, Tris and gang spend the majority of the film watching the big action on virtual reality screens and learning important revelations that will doubtlessly come into play — in the next installment. The upending revelations of the previous story, and need to replace departing villain Kate Winslet with another big bad, results in a film that’s mainly focused on reshuffling the board and putting pieces in play, doing so with a series of long speeches in front of poorly rendered vistas.
Before director Lee Toland Krieger takes up the mantle in Schwentke’s place for Ascendant, Allegiant brings together Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Octavia Spencer, Ray Stevenson, Zoe Kravitz, Whiplash star Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer, Daniel Dae Kim and Naomi Watts.
Allegiant, the penultimate chapter in Summit’s dystopian series, will launch into theaters on March 18. It’ll mark the final foray at the helm for director Robert Schwentke, who has opted not to return for Ascendant when it opens on March 24, 2017.
The third installment of the blockbuster Divergent series franchise, ALLEGIANT takes Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) into a new world, far more dangerous than ever before. After the earth-shattering revelations of INSURGENT, Tris must escape with Four and go beyond the wall enclosing Chicago. For the first time ever, they will leave the only city and family they have ever known. Once outside, old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless with the revelation of shocking new truths. Tris and Four must quickly decide who they can trust as a ruthless battle ignites beyond the walls of Chicago which threatens all of humanity. In order to survive, Tris will be forced to make impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice and love.