Movie Reviews

The 5th Wave

I once heard that films in January serve as a preview of the films for that year. Hopefuly the saying is false, because if teen sci-fi thriller, "The 5th Wave," is anything to go by, we will see some major letdowns in 2016. Should we have stopped at the fourth wave, or does the movie finally break the mold of poor teen novel adaptations? Well...nope. It's as bad as it looks.

The Plot: Based on the book by Rick Yancey, the movie follows teenager Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she and her five-year-old brother Sam survive various extinction-inducing events carried out by alien invaders known as "the Others"-- original, that name. However, Sam is drafted by the government and accidentally separated from his sister. Desperate, Cassie must now survive a hostile earth, unsure of who to trust, in order to reunite with her brother, while the Others plan the titular 5th wave, which no will see coming. On paper this may sound like the beginnings of a decent plot, but once the final product is seen, it's just a copy and paste of nearly every teen book adaptation trope ever made. The movie's first 30 minutes -- a series of flashbacks and expositions -- is the only good part, and it's not even the real story. From there, the story becomes almost embarrassingly predictable.

The Characters: The characters are even worse that the plot. To be fair, male lead Nick Robinson's character Zombie and most of the supporting cast do a decent job with the roles they're given, but the two decently-portrayed leads, Cassie and Evan Walker (Alex Roe), can easily frustrate moviegoers with their inevitable romantic tension. Evan's backstory, which ties into the shoe-horned theme of whether origin or heart determines identity and humanity's willingness to survive, puts the final nail in the coffin, and the main male lead loses all appeal. I will give credit where it's due: Mortez does a decent job, but poor decisions behind the scenes inhibit her from a truly good performance.

Final Verdict: When the film started, the first 30 minutes eased my worries about the the movie being a bad experience. Those worries came back in full force as I was subjected, for lack of a better term, to the rest of the movie and its cringingly obvious mistakes. Curiosity led me to look up the book this movie was based on, just in case it was better than its adaption. One critique caught my eye, saying that the movie "does for aliens what 'Twilight' does for vampires." If that isn't a good enough reason to not see this film, I have no clue what is.

Grade: D+