It currently has a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes.
10%, guys!!!! *That’s the % of positive reviews it’s received from approved critics.
Let’s put that in context:
Last year’s Christian-film “Do you Believe” currently has a 17%. 2015’s “The Human Centipede III” has a 19%. The much hated “Jem and the Hollograms” also has a 19%.
The ONLY movie with a worse rating is “Love, Wedding, Marriage” the 0% rated masterpiece starring Mandy Moore and Kellan Lutz. If my memory serves me right, my tipsy 2 am viewing of that film with Nikki a few years back does NOT remember a 0% and thinks it deserves at LEAST a 7%.
(Because I know you’re all wondering, “A Princess for Christmas” doesn’t have a critic rating. Bummer, I know. Between “Love, Wedding, Marriage,” it might be a fight for the bottom)
Despite That’s Normal’s glowing review of Allegiant by Lorena, it didn’t even make the #1 spot this week. It was second behind Zootopia, which has been out for 3 weeks (and has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes!) In Full disclosure: I haven’t seen Allegiant yet, so I have no REAL opinion except that I hated this book with a passion I did not keep quiet.
I’ll be honest that I haven’t been excited about the film for multiple reasons. The franchise has changed- it’s not as fancentric as past YA franchises. And we ARE fans, I think we’ve proven that. Remember when Nikki went to the Divergent set? Remember that time I photo-bombed Miles Teller at the Insurgent premiere?
Remember when we slayed the Divergent red carpet?
And of course, this moment at SDCC 2014:
Just a #realquickselfie with Theo James #theojames #divergent #thatsnormal #tnsdcc
A photo posted by That’s Normal (@thats_normal) on
I did a little digging to see if this movie was worth my $12 plus $17 for popcorn + water plus $5 for toll charge to get from PHL to NJ and I could NOT stop laughing. These.Reviews.Are.Terrible:
From the Irish Times: “There is so much to dislike its hard to know where to start” (1/5 stars)
Featuring the drippiest couple in popular culture since the Care Bears, the latest Divergent movie could hardly be worse if it tried.
In some unimaginably horrible future, movie audiences will be forced to watch endless generic dystopian fantasies whose only point of consistency is a determination to end their titles with “ent”. Hang on! We’re here! Excuse me while I fall screaming into a gaping off-the-peg CGI ravine.
From The Guardian: “The Divergent Series: Allegiant review – dull dystopia” (2/5 Stars)
The result is plodding stuff which accentuates the silliness of the original’s teen-mag personality-trope set-up, a narrative device that becomes more boringly byzantine with each successive instalment.
Even studio-pleasing, YA-loving MTV said: “The Thirsty Games: The Divergent Series: Allegiant keeps chasing Katniss’s tail”
Shailene Woodley seems to have given up on her money-making franchise.
Come back, Katniss. The teen dystopia needs you, a heroine who earned our respect……Divergent feels like a hasty idea scribbled on construction paper, crumpled into a ball, and ditched in a mud puddle. Even it can’t tell what it wanted to say. Instead, it’s a soggy spit-wad toward the good teen movies that shames the whole genre. Burn it all down, Girl on Fire. Burn it all down.
YIKES!
And I loved this from the Village Voice:
These movies were never going to transform cinema, but watching Allegiant, it’s hard not to feel as if someone has pulled the rug out from under an otherwise modestly entertaining franchise.
A couple other headlines and quotes I can’t stop laughing at:
- “It’s a naked money-grab that hurts the film.” from the Winnipeg Free Press. Lol, are we Just NOW calling the last book, two-movie split a money-grab?
- Allegiant Offer Little to Inspire Divergent Fans from The Boston Herald “Stick a fork in this “Divergent” series. It’s done.” Cute! Wait, is it possible they won’t ACTUALLY make the last film?
- “Seeing brilliant actors participate in poorly written movies is never a fun way to spend an afternoon.” Well that was kinda nice from ABC news.
- From The Detroit News: “Review: ‘Divergent’ sinks with hapless ‘Allegiant'”
“Latest film in the post-apocalyptic young adult series is an overly confusing, jumbled mess. The Divergent Series: Allegiant” is the most muddled entry yet in the “Divergent” franchise. “Well Eff you too, Detroit! - “Allegiant is a prime example of everything that’s wrong with modern YA sequels” from Examiner Gazette who clearly need to binge Twilight 1-5 to restore their faith in YA book-to-movies.
So… did ANYONE like this movie?! Well, let’s just say we know some writer friends, who are publicly saying it’s good, didn’t like it. Sasha, one of our favorite booktubers (A Book Utopia) on Snapchat said it was a good movie, but NOT a good book to movie adaptation.
And from our very own Aloki in the comments:
I saw the movie and it is soooooo much better than the books. They also put in a shirtless Four in the rain scene just for me. It felt like they covered 80%+ of the book (yet in a totally different not booky way) so not sure what else they can do in the next one. Makes me more curious!
The there’s this truth on Tumblr:
The reviews are mixed…… but… mostly bad. So…
