The Divergent Series: Allegiant is the first of two films based on the novel, “Allegiant”, the final book in the best-selling young adult “Divergent” trilogy by Veronica Roth.

After the shocking revelations in Insurgent, Tris (Woodley) and Four (James) along with their friends must undertake their most dangerous mission yet, outside of the walls that have encased Chicago for as long as anyone can remember. For the first time ever, they will leave their city and family in order to explore the new world that lies ahead, to hopefully find an explanation and peaceful solution to their disordered city.

What they find, however, are even more revelations of the earth-shattering truths behind the enclosure of Chicago. Not to mention the discovery of a dire plan to erase the city of Chicago and its people once and for all. It is now up to our brave young heroes to save their family, friends and home from an attack by the corrupt Bureau of Genetic Warfare beyond the walls.

The stellar cast, led by a brilliant Woodley, also includes Octavia Spencer, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort and Naomi Watts, all critically acclaimed in their recent work. With the film’s thrilling special effects, non-stop action and its message about courage, allegiance, sacrifice and love, Allegiant is a bona fide science fiction blockbuster.

British Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren) leads a multinational anti-terror drone operation over Kenya. During a routine observational mission, it is identified that the terror cell being monitored is preparing to launch a suicide attack, so the mission objective changed to immediately eliminate the target.

As he is about to pull the trigger, Powell’s US military drone operator (Paul) identifies that a 9-year-old girl is in the line of fire and refuses the order. Powell escalates the issue to Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman in his final live-action role) and has to rapidly navigate political and military forces to decide whether or not to take action.

A lot of viewers are probably going to be drawn to Eye in the Sky purely to see the final on-screen performance from one of the finest character actors of a generation: the late, great Alan Rickman. Thankfully he’s given plenty to work with here, delivering a performance as nuanced and authoritative as ever.

It’s particularly good to see the once-promising director Gavin Hood (Rendition, Tsotsi) come back to creating the sort of fare he’s cut out for after some disappointing attempts at big budget effects schlock (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Enders Game were hard to call anything but disappointing). As always Helen Mirren steals the show – though the role of a tough, pragmatic Colonel was really a gift that suited her range perfectly rather than something she had to steal in the first place.