Allegiant met my expectations … although I went into the movie not expecting much in the first place.

Based on the Divergent book trilogy by Veronica Roth, this movie is half of the final installment.

After watching last year’s disappointing Insurgent, all I could think of was “How much can they butcher this one?” The answer is, “Quite a bit.”

Even though it was better than the previous installment, it was not nearly as faithful to the book as the first.

Divergent was a superb movie and was so good in fact that it persuaded me to read the entire series.

Allegiant does not have that sort of shimmer; it was good enough to watch and not fall asleep, but it did not do the book much justice.

Stars from the previous movies Shailene Woodley, as Tris, and Theo James, as Four, are back again, trying to save Chicago from acts of tyranny.

This time it is not from Janine Matthews (played by Kate Winslet) wiping out the divergent, it is from Four’s own mother Evelyn putting all of Janine’s associates on trial, including Tris’s brother Caleb.

As you may have guessed, these trials aren’t really trials, but rather prolonged slaughterings to entertain the angry crowd.

Evelyn (played by Naomi Watts) now governs the factionless world of Chicago and orders that no one leave its boundaries. However, Four has other ideas and together the whole crew — Christina, Caleb, Peter, Tris, Tori and Four — head off to seek what is beyond the wall.

At times, the movie had painful dialogue. As they successfully get over the wall that separates their world from reality, Tris declares victory saying, “We did it!” not even half an hour into the movie and then the obligatory calamity happens.

This is also apparent when Caleb comes across a red puddle and says, “This looks radioactive … well probably 200 years ago,” which is obviously supposed to foreshadow that the Chicago experiment was created 200 years ago … obviously.

The backstory between Tris’s and Caleb’s sibling bitterness is also cut short and mostly ignored throughout the movie.

In fact, many major details were cut, such as Tris’s and Four’s failing romance, the character Uriah whose death is a major element in the book and Caleb’s actual trial.

Other than the wall scene, Tris actually loses her Dauntless-gained die hard persona; she almost appears … fragile.

The main focus in Allegiant is actually Four, as he is the one to piece together what is real and what isn’t.

Peter is the comic relief in the seriousness of it all, and actually achieved a few laughs here and there.

I must note, for a movie that is supposed to be dark and action packed, the scenery was actually made bright and cheerful with sunshine greeting the camera. Not the typical dark storm clouds, or nighttime that most action movies would have.

In short, if you are a fan of the Divergent books, watch the movie just for the curiosity of seeing how it came out.

Just make sure to keep your expectations low to get over the fact that it has almost none of the juicy parts of the novels.

I know that I will definitely find myself in front of the movie screen next year when the last movie comes out, even with how barely satisfactory the last two have been.

This one is bad, but bearable, and I’d give it 2 ½  out of 5 stars.