The 5th Wave

Based on the novel by Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave details the chaos that naturally ensues when malevolent aliens park their enormous ships over earth and subsequently begin exterminating the human population – with the narrative following Chloë Grace Moretz’s Cassie Sullivan as she attempts to stay alive while also searching for her missing brother (Zackary Arthur’s Sam). There’s little doubt that The 5th Wave, before it devolves into total irrelevance, gets off to a decidedly fantastic start, as filmmaker J Blakeson does an effective job of depicting the unexpectedly frightening early stages of the aforementioned alien invasion (eg a plane falls out of the sky, entire cities are submerged in water, etc). It’s distressing to note, then, that the movie, past a certain point, morphs into an all-too-typical post-apocalyptic teen thriller, with scripters Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman, and Jeff Pinkner placing an increased emphasis on elements of a decidedly hackneyed elements. (There’s even a love triangle, for crying out loud!) The less-than-captivating atmosphere is compounded by a proliferation of almost comically bland and generic side characters, with the best/worst example of this a tough-as-nails goth chick with a penchant for one-liners and absurd amounts of black eyeliner. (Where is she getting all her makeup from, exactly?) And although an admittedly decent third-act twist injects some life into the pervasively tedious proceedings, The 5th Wave ultimately falls right in line with such by-the-numbers young-adult fare as the Hunger Games and Divergent series – with the movie’s open conclusion sure to provoke groans and eye-rolls from even the hardiest of audience members.

** out of ****