Wave this trend goodbye
The 5th Wave (2016): 4 out of 10: The first half hour is decent enough. Heck. The first scene is the best thing in the movie. It’s like something out of a Fallout or State of Decay film adaptation. If the movie itself was anything like that first scene it would be fantastic. It isn’t.
First the positive. Outside of Maria Bello hamming it up, the acting isn’t that bad. And that is about it for the positives. The special effects and setting make this seem more like a made for TV or perhaps a headlining Syfy movie rather than a Triple-A theater release. The story telegraphs twists that Ray Charles would find hard to miss. The turncoat good guys practically twist their invisible mustaches. They dressed the good guy child soldiers in black ninja camo and yet all wear giant, led flashlights on their head. I am no military expert but that seems like a no-no. The invading alien plan makes zero sense, and each twist brings the 5th Wave closer into The Happening territory.
As someone who can watch the similarly themed Red Dawn and leave logic comfortably outside the room, all this doesn’t kill The 5th Wave for me. Then the movie goes full Twilight. You never go full Twilight. They were going for Buffy and Angel and ended up with Xander and a Praying Mantis. The romance seems like that between an injured kidnap victim and the creepy guy at the gas station who still goes to high school parties.
Poor Chloë Grace Moretz just wants her own YA series to complement her own serious films like Jennifer Lawrence got with The Hunger Games. Instead, she got a ripoff like Shailene Woodley got with Divergent. To make matters worse unlike Divergent, this turkey is unlikely to get the two sequels no one is asking for.
