The Divergent Series: Allegiant

First Hit:  As the second to last film in this series, it moves the storyline along and was watchable.

Series films have become prominent fare being produced by Hollywood. Originality appears to be too risky and studios are banking on a prior successful story-lines, many times with the same actors, to produce dollars.

There are series films that have done well and grow in their story-line and presentation. Some are sequential types of films where the story develops over time (e.g. Rocky). Other use the same actors and/or their characters in new situations (e.g. James Bond films). Two of the latest series sets are The Hunger Games series and the Divergent series.

Both of these film series have heroines, use young actors, but the major difference between film number 3 for both these, is that Divergent is watchable and has a plot, whereas The Hunger Games was barely more than a set-up for the fourth film and virtually unwatchable.

Acting wise there are stronger actors in The Hunger Games however the script and possibly the direction let them down.

In this Divergent film, we find Tris (Shailene Woodley) disliking the change in leadership of their community and with this wants to breakthrough the wall surrounding Chicago to find out what else exists. In a daring escape she and Four (Theo James), Christina (Zoe Kravitz), Caleb (Ansel Elgort), and Peter (Miles Teller), go over the wall and end up in the Bureau of Genetic Welfare where Tris meets and begins working with David (Jeff Daniels).

As the façade of David is exposed, Four heads back to Chicago to help his mother Evelyn (Naomi Watts) sort through the problems of governing a division free Chicago.

Woodley is good enough in this film and I don’t know if it was the script, direction or her abilities that lowered my interest and caring about her character. James was consistent in his role and was one of the better characters. Teller was also very consistent, not only in this film, but through all of them. Elgort seemed amateurish in his portrayal of Caleb. Daniels was sufficiently strong as the antagonist. Watts was OK in a role that seemed unrealistic in its portrayal. Noah Oppenheim and Adam Cooper wrote this mediocre script. Robert Schwentke did a fair job of keeping the film moving along despite the lack of solid substance.

Overall:  This film wasn’t completely lost and hopefully its conclusion in June of 2017 will work better.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

First Hit:  I couldn’t help but compare Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” with this film and in many ways this film is more touching and it was also very slow at times.

This is a long and grandiose type film.

It does its best to create characters we can either like or dislike. Ramses (Joel Edgerton) has the look and feel of the antagonist but there is something missing and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Christian Bale plays Moses the adopted brother (of sorts) of Ramses both of whom are guided by Ramses father Seti (John Turturro).

Viceroy Hegep (Ben Mendelsohn) overhears that Moses is really a Hebrew and tells Ramses. Moses is ousted from the Egyptian royal family and finds his roots. He comes back to Egypt to free his people (600,000 Hebrews) and lead them home. Guided by a young boy, who represents the almighty, he witnesses the plagues and then leads the slaves through the Red Sea and to their ancestral home. This film was slow most of the time.

The 3-D version of the plagues was very good and it surpasses the previous film in realistic spectacle. Funny that I still liked the previous version of the parting of the Red Sea because the way the walls of the water jumped up. However, this film’s version is far more realistic and was very good as well. I don't think this film will do very well at the box office because the story telling here just isn’t very compelling.

Edgerton as Ramses is effective but doesn't carry the energy to make us want to find him the villain he's suppose to be. Bale does his best in this role and at times is really good, but the material slows him down. Turturro is really good as Seti because he carries the air of supremacy and intelligence perfectly. Mendelson in a smallish role is fabulous. He makes the most of this part. There were other big name actors in the film but their minor roles are not worth mentioning. Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine, and Steven Zaillian wrote this over full script. Ridley Scott directed this overly full script. The best part was the effectiveness of creating great plagues.

Overall:  This was a long film that only begins to pick up during the plagues.