Allegiant...In a Nutshell

There was something irony about today.

This time last year, my friend and I planned to go see Insurgent in the theatre on the Thursday before opening night.  Tuesday afternoon, however, my co-worker came up to me and asked if I could cover for him Thursday morning...even though I was already working an 8-hour shift that afternoon.

For whatever reason, I said yes...

...thus, I ended up working 11.5 hours straight, followed by a 2+ hour movie with my friend.

This experience is documented in my blog post: Insurgent_Count_Down

(I realize I promised to post my review within a few days of the showing but never did, and for that I apologize.)

This March, I planned to go see Allegiant at the dine-in theatre near campus as a treat for surviving Finals.  I bought my ticket for the 11:30am showing two days in advance, as this was the only showing that would get out before my 3pm shift at work (also on campus).  This morning (Thursday), I received a desperate message from my boss saying that the my co-worker had called in sick and she needed someone to cover at least for a little bit this morning (Finals Weeks isn't quite over yet).  And since the theatre was right next to school and I had to be out there at 11:30 anyway, I said I would come in from 9:30 to 11-ish, and hopefully after that my other co-worker would be able to come in a little early.

The irony in it all is that I was covering a Thursday morning shift for the same co-worker I'd covered for a year earlier, AND I was going to see a Divergent movie afterward.




Allegiant

Don't mind us.
We're just climbing a wall in style.

Where to begin?

Overall, I liked it.  I absolutely loved John Trapanese's original score from Insurgent, and I loved Allegiant's soundtrack just as much.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about Insurgent (other than all of the deviations from the book) is how bad the dialogue sounds.  And I'll admit, a good portion of it is a little clunky like whoever wrote it (Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman, Mark Bomback) just didn't know how to write believable dialogue.  Either that, or the actors weren't given very good direction from Robert Schwentke.  Or a combination thereof.

Whatever was going on in Insurgent seems to have been remedied in this latest installment, because the dialogue didn't seem quite as awkward to me.  Actually, it sounded pretty good.  Everyone seemed much more comfortable with their roles, so overall the performances were great.

Costume design was interesting as well.  I thought they utilized the costuming well to further separate Tris, who is considered pure, from the others, who are considered unpure, by dressing Tris in really bright whites to contrast blacks and the dark grays worn by everybody else.  Fantastically well-thought-out stuff!

Most of all, I loved the lighting!  I absolutely LOVED it!  It was a happy combination of softer high-key lighting (very light shadows) and the darker, heavier borderline chiaroscuro lighting I love so much.

So, overall, I enjoyed the movie...


Defiant 
(or why Allegiant should be excomminucated from the Divergent family)

Tris is sad because of how
inaccurate the movie was.

...but not as a member of the Divergent family.

A lot of liberties were taken with the storyline, especially after the first, like, half an hour or so.  Elements of the story remain the same --  Tori still dies during their escape, Tris finds out here mother used to work at the science facility, and David still tries to release a memory serum on the city of Chicago while the people are at war with each other.

I liked Allegiant as its own little stand-alone movie about a girl and her friends who seek to discover the trust about what lies beyond the wall that both protects and imprisons their dystopian city.

As its own little blob of movie, Allegiant is fantastic!

As a member of the Divergent family...it leaves something to be desired.




Arrogant 
(or how Tris is still alive and why I have a problem with that)

I should be dead.  What happened?

Now don't get me wrong, I actually like Shailene Woodley as an actress.  But the fact that Tris made it through this movies relatively unscathed just made me angry.

It's not that I want her to die.  Nobody truly wants one of their favorite characters to die at the end of a movie or a book (that's what makes their deaths so sad to us).  But, I understand that in order for the Divergent series to reach its full and complete end, Tris must die.  As a writer, I get that.  Sometimes you have to knock off your main character to solve the problem.  Sometimes your main character has to go down in order to take the antagonist down as well.  I get that.

I also [kinda] get why they split the movie into 2 parts: Allegiant being Part 1 and Ascendant being Part 2 (due next year).  On the one hand, it keeps the franchise going, and the longer the franchise lasts the more many media moguls in Hollywood can make.  See, the film industry is all about money and less about art in America, which is why movies like Son of Saul stand out to us so much (as the Hungarians are a bit more focused on the artful aspect of filmmaking than we are).  This is why I get really excited when I do see really artfully crafted movies or movie trailers.

Regardless, I have no problem with splitting a book into 2 movies, but only if it's done right.

Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2 were done correctly in my opinion.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Breaking Dawn Part 2 were done correctly in my opinion.

Allegiant Part 1 was not done correctly in my opinion.

I defy them to make Allegiant Part 2 correctly at this point.

Splitting Allegiant into 2 movies wouldn't be a problem if the material was being equally distributed (or close to equally).  As it stands, the Allegiant movie covered so much of the book that they really should have just killed Tris off, ended the series, and called it good.

What makes me even more upset is that they set it up to kill Tris at least once during the climax, and yet she is still with us, and they're moving forward with Ascendant (which is technically Allegiant Part 2).  And I was prepared to forgive them for the rest of the inaccuracies if they just did this one little thing right and let Tris die at the end of the movie.  But no, it was not to be.

Considering how much of the book was covered by Allegiant, I defy them to make a full 2+ hour movie out of what's left of the book.  I defy them to do it!


Detergent
(or why I think Ascendant should be renamed Detergent and labeled as fanfiction)

The Final Chapter or the First Crossover?

I'm not saying they shouldn't make Ascendant.

I'm just saying that they should have ended Allegiant in one happy 2-hour, 20-minute movie, then make Ascendant something else entirely.  Disconnected from the Divergent series altogether.

How, you ask?

First, it's time for us to face the reality that Hollywood has been talking about making a Divergent/Hunger Games crossover.  And while some of us may have been hoping and praying to avoid this detriment to great literature, I think it's time for us to face the fact we may be seeing these crossover movies sooner than we'd like to admit.

Second, considering how they ended the existing Allegiant movie, it is possible that they will just run off and take Ascendant down a whole different path that is completely different from the remaining portion of the Allegiant book it's supposed to be based on.  On top of the fact are rumors that Ascendant will contain "all new material".  How, exactly, can a movie based on a book contain "all new material"?  And how does Hollywood expect fans to be excited about this "all new material" when it means the defiling of a wonderful piece of dystopian literature?

Tris and Katniss: Partners in Crime?

So, will Ascendant be the first Divergent/Hunger Games crossover?  Will we be seeing Katniss or any other TGH references scattered throughout the last installment of the Divergent series?  Will President Snow rise to power and turn the experimental cities like Chicago into the 13 districts?  Will a five-year-old Mags make an appearance?  Will Tris end up leading the rebellion that leads to the destruction of District 13?

Truthfully, I have no idea.

I wish I could use my psychic mojo to read the minds of the Ascendant production team so I could tell you what they have in store for the movie...but sadly, I don't have any psychic mojo (which is probably a good thing in the long run).

My fangirl would love to get Jennifer Lawrence and Shailene Woodley in a movie together, maybe not as Katniss and Tris, but definitely with playing similar characters in some sort of dystopian future with a totalitarian government.

But, as an author and a fan of the books, I'm horribly offended by the idea of merging the Divergent and Hunger Games universes into a gigantic dystopian blob.  I think that would only serve to destroy the hopes and dreams and childhoods of so many fans.  Filmmakers should show authors more respect when adapting their works into movies.

We really need a washing
machine, Four!

If they must make a crossover movie, they should call it Detergent and make it about how the oppressed Districts of Panem join forces with the people of Chicago to overthrow the totalitarian government who has denied them the right to use washing machines to do their laundry.  They can make weapons out of empty detergent bottles and break into the BGW to steal their heavily protected and highly coveted washing machines.  Tris is killed while breaking into the washing machine vault and Katniss helps restore order to the whole country by smuggling the stolen washing machines to the impoverished Districts and experimental cities.  Because, you see, the world would just be a better place if everyone could just do their laundry in washing machines.

And yes, Hollywood, you may use that idea if you'd like.