(SPOILER WARNING!!! This article does contain spoilers, if you haven’t seen the movie, just see the first paragraph to be informed without spoilers!!!)

The Divergent Series: Allegiant is a step back from the first two movies, it was was a predictable filler with some of the worst CGI graphics I have seen, at the very least, it was interesting to watch!!!

Rating: 3 Stars

So here we are with another teen movie that is on its final book with their movie trilogy. Or at least it should be a trilogy, but decided to follow from past movies, and stretch out the final book to drain more money out of us even though the movies can be so bland it is ridiculous and infuriating to me. The thing is, I did enjoy the first two movies in the Divergent series. They were entertaining with decent action. With these movies, the story, though not great, is interesting to see what is going to happen next. When they announced that they were dividing the final book into two movies, i immediately knew that the next movie was going to be a filler, and subpar with the story. It’s like they haven’t learned from The Hunger Games, and how it can make a movie very boring. It’s a Hollywood ploy that I have been saying for a while that it needs to stop. Let’s be real, these movies do it for the money, not for the sake of the story. They know teens will come and watch, and revel in the money they get. With that said, I hope my prediction was wrong, but I was right.

What I Like: The story wasn’t that boring. It was actually entertaining even though it completely changed directions from the first two movies. Pretty much, the crew goes beyond the walls to see what is out there, and they find another civilization where they were in charge of their home in dystopian Chicago. Where they find out they were part of an experiment and Tris, played by Shailene Woodley was the perfect outcome of the experiment. Now the people they meet are a higher and more futuristic type of people that are supposedly trying to save the rest of the world to create pure beings. While their home in Chicago has started another civil war between them. Seeing this type of story developing had me intrigued. One thing I like is that their army have these cool drone system to help them navigate, and be alert of their surroundings. That was cool to see. For a filler movie, it did give a good ending which I give them a lot of credit for and appreciate.

The So So: The story started intriguing, but then it started to get predictable and redundant. You knew that all good things have a big catch that proves to be disastrous. You knew that the new director, David played by Jeff Daniels, was up to no good. He wants to create a world full of pure beings and let the damaged beings pretty much kill themselves. The cliche goes that when everything seems to go perfectly, there is something evil lurking behind the walls. So of course Tris and Four, played by Theo James, and the rest of the crew (including Christina, played by the beautiful Zoe Kravitz), don’t agree with them and decided to go back and save their home from being gassed and have their memories erased. Of course they managed to succeed in a dumb way where Tris pretty much knows everything, and stops it at the nick of time. Then they start to unite their people and start a war against the higher people beyond their wall. The ending pretty much sounds like the first Divergent movie, and pretty much all the other teen movie series.

What I Didn’t Like: I was disappointed with the direction of Robert Schwentke in this movie. The first two movies action was good, but in this movie it had such horrific CGI action and special effects. How bad was it? It was like a late 80’s movie combined with the prequels of Star Wars. Not a good combination. The first two movies action were believable, this movie’s action looked faker than Keanu Reeves acting. It really did bother me watching this movie, and it was practically the whole movie like that. The story about The Fringe, the land between Chicago and the higher land, was very under developed. All we know is that they are inhabited by people, but the higher land goes there to take their kids to use them for their experiments, and supposedly they were evil but that was a lie, and Tris’s mother was born there.I wanted to learn more about that area and their people, but maybe I have to wait until their next movie. (Eyes rolling with a big sigh.) Also, the character of Peter, played by Miles Teller, is getting really annoying. I mean, how many times will he screw over his team for his own selfish reasons. I was really hoping the movie will kill him off in the end, but unfortunately it didn’t. Maybe in the next movie which I will be looking forward to seeing. If it happens of course.

Overall: The movie is ok, and I did give it a very gracious ok rating. The story was interesting at least, but the special effects and the third act of the story was a real step back. It is a filler movie which sets up for a big battle in the final movie. I hope it is worth the wait, but my hopes aren’t that high. I’m almost tempted to watch the final movie in bootleg just to piss off Hollywood, but I’m a man of integrity!!!

Rating 3 Stars

(Sidenote: Ashby- This movie starred Mickey Rourke as a dying retired CIA agent Ashby who befriends a new neighbor teen named Ed played by Nat Wolff, and do things together that help each other look at life a different and more motivating way. This movie had some good emotion, but it is a typical run of the mill friendly and somewhat philosophical type of movie. It did bring out a good and positive message at the very least. However, some of the worst football game filming I have seen in a while!!!
Rating: 3.5 Stars)

(Sidenote: Pawn Sacrifice- This biopic movie stars Tobey Maguire as chess player Bobby Fischer. The movie really focuses on how mentally unstable Fischer was, but yet a genius in the game of chess going against prominent Russian chess players. It really focuses on the crazy personality of Fischer, but why he is important in US history beating the best Russian chess player, Boris Spassky played by Liev Schrieber, during the Cold War years. I wish the movie focused more on the political aspect of Fischer and competitive chess, but the movie is interesting to watch and Maguire really acted very well as Bobby Fischer. However, the movie really tried to make the game of competitive chess thrilling, but it just didn’t do it for me. Good try though!!!
Rating: 4 Stars)