'The 5th Wave' A Review

The 5th Wave is an alien invasion movie based on the young adult novel of the same name. Cassie(Chloë Grace Moretz) is a normal Ohio suburbanite until aliens come to Earth. They attack the humans with successive tactics- "waves". After her mother is killed by the Avian flu Cassie, her father, and brother flee to a survivors camp which is then taken over by the US military. The children are packed off to the local Air Force base to become soldiers and the adults are killed. Cassie escapes and resolves to make the 80 mile trek to rescue her brother.

Although there are some great actors in the movie- Ron Livingston as the dad, Liev Schreiber as the authoritarian possibly suspect Colonel, Maria Bello as the tough but wry Sergeant, and Maika Monroe as Ringer the only conscripted teen with any skill- they are criminally under utilized and suffer from the flat predictable script. Moretz as the lead struggles to deliver a coherent character. Her emotional moments are heightened to the point of farce, although she totes an assault rifle around there is no sense she is in fact capable. She is more a composite of YA heroines rather than an actual person, her relationship with her brother, a purported driving force of the story, is flat and unengaging.

The biggest problem with the The 5th Wave isn't the acting, the script, or the production design(serviceable) it is more global- the conceit itself. It is not original but pastiche, a hodgepodge of YA distopian tropes- female protagonist, sibling in danger, love triangle, exploited kids- which are utilized not to tell an interesting and thrilling tale but to fit a prescribed formula in an effort to make money. The desire for profit was so prevalent cogent story telling was neglected.

All this on top of odd anachronistic references like Coldplay's Don't Panic and a Big Fish poster make for an experience more laughable than entertaining.

Not quite so-bad-its-good, just bad.

Don't See It.