The Divergent Series: Allegiant is the third film in The Divergent Series tetralogy. The movie series is an adaptation of Veronica Roth's Divergent books, which tell of a post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago where society is divided into strict factions based on personality traits. The protagonist, Tris, defies categorization and slowly becomes drawn toward rebelling against the system.
The Blu-ray DVD set for Allegiant is actually a combination of Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD. For the special features, about half of them are on the Blu-ray disk and half are on the DVD disc. This could be frustrating for those without a Blu-ray player (like myself) but fortunately the Digital HD code allows access to a digital version of the movie and all the features. You just have to use either Itunes or Ultraviolet HD to access them, and the card in the DVD gives you clear instructions on how to do so. I think it’s nice that you get access to so many versions and the price is pretty reasonable.
As for the features themselves, they’re decent. The claim on the DVD cover of “hours of extras” is technically true if you include the audio commentary, but the other extras come down to about roughly 40 minutes of content altogether. While the extras cover a lot of aspects of the film and feature a lot of the cast, they don’t really give fans much new information.
The Allegiant: Book to Film feature addresses how different the film is from the book it adapted, which is something many fans pointed out and also complained about. While there is an explanation given for the changes, they are fairly broad and vague, so deep insight into the adaptation process won’t really be found in this feature. The Battle in the Bullfrog deals with character Four’s battle inside a ship and gives a little peek at the stuntwork and effects that went into that scene, so that part is new.
Finding the Future: Effects and Technology continues in that vein, taking a look at all the futuristic technology in the universe of the movie and talking a bit about each effect and set piece and how they were created. The feature goes into concept art and construction and shows a lot of “making of” scenes. So if you’re interested in that type of thing, it’s a solid feature. The Characters in Conflict feature is just mainly the cast and crew describing the character clashes in the movie, mostly focusing on the movie’s villain. There’s not much new information, but if you’re interested in hearing the cast talk about the characters, this feature provides that.
The Next Chapter: Cast and Characters may sound like it’s giving a preview to the upcoming final chapter of the movie series, Ascendant, but it actually focuses more on this movie as the “next chapter” of the series and features the cast and crew talking about working together again and new developments in the movie. It’s fairly standard.
Building the Bureau talks about the construction of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, the controlling body that split society into faction. The feature discusses building the set and how the Bureau is a futuristic version of O ‘Hare airport. It a pretty thorough feature, going deeply into the layout of the set.
The final feature is, of course, the audio commentary, which is by Producers Douglas Wicks and Lucy Fisher. That’s a bit odd, because usually you want cast members and the director on the commentary somewhere, as we generally perceive them as closer to the project. You could tell the producers weren’t used to it either, they spoke very slowly and sounded nervous. They give some information about the process though, so that’s nice.
If you're a huge fan, this DVD might be worth it, but this is not a DVD you should buy solely to see the features as they’re not astounding or incredibly informative by any means. If you really want to own the movie, though, it is by no means a bad purchase.
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!