Classic Review: The 5th Wave (2016)

Since I’ve started this site, I’ve written a lot of reviews. In case you missed some of my earlier ones, I would like to share an older review of “The 5th Wave” which originally appeared here.

Four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth in ruin. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother Sam (Zackary Arthur). As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal fifth wave, Cassie teams up with a young man, Evan Walker (Alex Roe), who may become her final hope, if she can only trust him.

I’m not sure why but it seems like all young-people centered films are based on books. This one is no different. Of course since that’s the case, I haven’t read the books in which this was based. If some of you were wondering, this will probably be the start of a new series of movies based on the series books in which it is based on (or so I’ve heard). I won’t spoil anything but the ending does allow for the possibility of this. The story for this one involves a young girl named Cassie (Moretz) who is on the run from unknown entities, trying to save her brother Sam (Arthur). On her quest, she runs into a man named Evan Walker (Roe) who may be her last hope, assuming she can trust him. I don’t think I’d be spoiling anything by saying that this is an alien film as it was pretty obvious in trailers and early on in the film. We never really get to see them but their presence loomed large throughout the film. That fact that they could take over human bodies and control them thus making them look like humans created some tension as the characters didn’t know who to trust. I believe since this is supposed to be the start of the series, this film was used primarily to introduce the general stories, characters, and the world. I think we should get a better look at the aliens, known as “others”, later on. One thing I really hated about this film was the disaster scenes when the aliens first arrived. The CGI was so obviously bad, it just took you out of the experience. It just didn’t come close to other films. Another problem I had with this film was with its story, it’s not a very original one as it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Watching this will make you feel like you’ve seen a lot of this before as it rips off other better films. Seeing that this is a YA (young adult) film, you’ll be drowning in all the usual cliches, going back to its unoriginal story. There is a twist (albeit predictable) which creates the open ending for future films which created some excitement for me but I just wished it came sooner as I found the first half of the film to be a little slow and boring. The cause of this was primarily a romantic subplot between Cassie and Evan. This didn’t work for me as it just came off as contrived and cliched and slowed things down. I just felt that that it didn’t add anything to the story. Moretz was okay here as she was able to carry the film and she kept me engaged. Nick Robinson as Ben Parish was sort of the film’s other lead and I found him interesting but I wish I had seen more of him because he felt wasted here but I understand this is the beginning of a series. Overall, this serves as another entry in the crowded YA film series. It isn’t the most original film but it kept me mildly interested.

Score: 6/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.