Allegiant adds another disappointing chapter to the Divergent series

Few film series (Star Wars I, II, and III come to mind) have squandered more potential than Divergent. The films’ directors and writers have consistently sacrificed story to style. Moviegoers hoping The Divergent Series: Allegiant–Part 1, the third Divergent installment, would redeem the franchise will likely find the film even more uninteresting and heavy-handed than the first two. (Allegiant–Part 1 opened Friday; Allegiant–Part 2 is scheduled for a March 2017 release.)

With Jeanine dead and the faction system dismantled at the end of Insurgent, a power struggle for control of Chicago develops between Evelyn (Naomi Watts) and Johanna (Octavia Spencer). Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), and three friends escape over the city’s high walls—the first breakout of the series—in search of answers that might bring peace to Chicago. Outside the walls they find a toxic wasteland, scattered pockets of primitive people groups living in the “Fringe,” and a technologically advanced stronghold called “the Bureau of Genetic Welfare.”

David (Jeff Daniels), the Bureau’s director, reveals to Tris that Chicago has been a 200-year experiment overseen by a large team of genetically pure individuals who closely monitor everything that goes on in the city. Ever since genetic “editing” back in the 21st century resulted in masses of “damaged” people and subsequent widespread warfare, the Bureau has worked to rid the human genome of defects. David tries to recruit Tris, but Four is suspicious.

Meanwhile, Chicago is about to boil over into all-out pandemonium. And David has a terrible plan in store for the city akin to the Bureau’s dealings with children his people have been kidnapping from the Fringe.

There’s a story here, but endless insignificant tidbits suck up the film’s time and energy. Viewers (like me) who have a particular enjoyment of films set in post-apocalyptic or dystopian landscapes might find it hard not to allow the film’s flavorlessness to peeve them. Well-constructed films of this genre (for example, the first two original Planet of the Apes movies) immerse viewers in isolation and dread of the unknown. Viewers project themselves into the hostile environment and contemplate how they would survive.

Throughout the Divergent films, however, viewers have scarcely sensed fear and foreboding. Whatever teensy bit of magic the first film manifested dissipated in the second and did not reappear in the third. Especially in Allegiant, equally bland heroes and villains express both their passion and anger with all the ardor of a text-message volley.

Allegiant (rated PG-13 for intense violence and action, and some partial nudity) barely acknowledges its real lesson: Man cannot purify himself. Despite his best efforts, he remains immutably corrupt. The film broaches compulsory vaccinations and the quest for genetically perfect babies but doesn’t take on these interesting threads in a remotely meaningful way. Instead, viewers must sit through repetitive finger wagging.

“Maybe it’s time we start embracing everyone instead of dividing them into groups,” Tris admonishes the council to whom David reports.

Fine, big hug. Consider everyone embraced. Now, can we do the final film right?