By Charlotte McParland [1]
One of the first official posters released by Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment of the third instalment of the Divergent series, Allegiant.
BELLEVILLE – With one of the worst turnouts [2] in franchise history, the third Divergent series movie, Allegiant, flopped on its opening weekend with a total $33.54 million in box-office receipts and some of the lowest ratings [3] yet.
And on cheap night Tuesday at the local Galaxy Cinemas [4], fans had more mixed reviews than with any other of the previous movies in the series.
The third movie instalment based on Veronica Roth’s bestselling young-adult books is farther off the novels than ever, said some of the moviegoers.
“This movie was complete different than the book,” said Tanya Hill, 21, a student from Loyalist College.
“The book series is my favourite series, and the first two movies were pretty good. But I didn’t like this one at all. It was too much sci-fi,” said Hill.
And this was a common theme among the Allegiant fans, along with a “boring” story line.
So #allegiant [5] was a bit of a snooze fest… 😴
— Roxie Watt (@mollyandalfie) March 14, 2016 [6]
I watched #allegiant [5] today, it was great but #insurgent [7] was better; today it felt incomplete, not a conclusive ending, hmm…???
— Bobbyanne (@PromisingYellow) March 14, 2016 [8]
The movie received only a 10 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes [3], and got one out of four stars from Rolling Stone [9].
In Allegiant, the main character of the series, Tris, played by Shailene Woodley, and her love interest Four, played by Theo James, escape the war-stricken city of Chicago that has been taken over by Four’s mother, Evelyn (Naomi Watts), to travel beyond the wall.
Once over, they wind up in a new sci-fi land with technology much more advanced than anything seen in the movies before, and end up rebelling against the government once again.
The movie came in second place at the box office [10] this week, after the animated Zootopia [11], which scored a 99-per-cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and had made $201.8 million after 17 days.
Most people at the Belleville cinemas Tuesday night were parents with younger kids, presumably going to Zootopia, while an older adult audience was attending Tina Fey’s new movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot [12].
Marge Laforte, 30, from Belleville, said she went to see Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and that she’s never heard of the Divergent trilogy.
“I don’t think I’ve ever even heard about it. What’s that? A series?” she asked.
Janine Clow is a fan of the series but said she was disappointed by the film.
“Meh, it was a good show. All right I guess, but definitely not as good as the others. I’m not too impressed.”