Allegiant (2016)

Like last year’s sequel Insurgent, Allegiant, the third instalment in the Divergent franchise, only partially succeeds in its attempts to carve out a story that is largely different than that of its source material. Some important elements from the book were omitted (though, admittedly they could happen in next year’s Ascendant), and attempts to add in some new plot devices come across a little juvenile. One thing it does actually achieve is following through on the message that the re-naming from Allegiant – Part 1 sent out; this is a mostly self contained movie that can be viewed as a whole chapter, rather than a story cut off mid-stream.

Insurgent (2015)

Divergent’s biggest problem as a movie was that it followed its source material too closely, and as such brought all the issues that permeated the novel with it. Insurgent frees itself from the confines of second Divergent book by taking a few creative liberties, but in doing so it created a whole host of other complications. As a fan they didn’t bother me too much, but for a series that was already struggling to be taken seriously it doesn’t do much to win over any new fans.

Divergent (2014)

Divergent is one of the most faithful book-to-film adaptions I’ve seen in a long time. It carried over almost all of the elements of the novel that fans would want to see, and maintained the structure of the story surprisingly well. Its downfall, however, is just that; it was faithful to a fault. It stuck so rigidly to Veronica Roth’s blueprint that it brought over a number of weaknesses that when on paper don’t seem too jarring, but on film are magnified that bit more. Despite that, though, it still worked for me.