The Divergent Series: Allegiant Review - 11 Reasons It Might Be 2016's Worst Film

Whether you wanted it to arrive or not, the third cinematic entry into the Divergent "saga" is here, and though the previous films scored fairly mixed critical notices (sitting at 40% and 29% on Rotten Tomatoes respectively), it's safe to say that the pundits aren't being kind to Allegiant. British reviewers were quick to let it settle at a depressing 0%, and though the film will likely end up floating at around the 10-15% mark once the US critics have had their say next week, it's still a fair assessment that Allegiant isn't only a bad film and also the worst of the series, but easily an early contender for next year's Razzies. That's right: the movie has pretty much everything shoddy the infamous anti-awards ceremony looks for, and in several areas it's hard to imagine many movies coming close to this level of awfulness. So, short of Paul Blart 3 somehow landing in our laps this year, here are 11 reasons why Allegiant might be 2016's worst film...

11. It's Another Pointless Two-Part Movie (In Disguise)

Harry Potter kick-started the current trend of novel franchise adaptations splitting their final book into two movies, which has also been exploited by the likes of Twilight and The Hunger Games in order to reap some extra cash (even if the Part 1 movies have historically fared much worse than Part 2). Divergent is pulling a similar trick but being a little sneakier about it, by calling the first movie simply Allegiant rather than "Allegiant Part 1", and re-naming the final film to "Ascendant", in order to distract non-readers from the fact that this is a blatant attempt to milk the cash cow for an extra few hundred million dollars. And unquestionably, it's a trick that's going to work, so look out for a ton of future YA adaptations to deviate from the source material's title when it comes to the inevitable finale split. If there's any good reason to dislike the movie before it even begins, this sly manipulation and trend-setting behaviour is it.